There are plenty of fitness routines that come with the promise of tightening your abs, improving your cardiovascular health, shaving 20 pounds off your mid-section and making you feel 10 years younger.

But this isn’t one of them. This one is all about the exercises that can make you a better golfer without having to spend hours and hours in the gym. For this workout, you’ll be focusing on only two areas of the body, says performance coach Tyler Campbell. That’s it, just two. And if you do this quick-and-easy routine regularly, your golf game will improve through osmosis.

“Exercises that improve hip mobility and rotation through your mid-back will give you the best chance to make a more efficient swing with proper sequencing,” says Campbell, who trains clients at the Golf Performance Center in Ridgefield, Conn.

With that in mind, here are eight exercises to get you and your golf year off to a great start. And if you want more, sign up for Campbell’s bigger, three-part “Fast-Track Fitness” work-out series at Golf Digest Schools.

Struggle with scapular stability? Tyler Campbell explains it here.

“The bretzel is great for improving your ability to rotate the upper or lower body separately,” Campbell says. “Although we categorize this as a thoracic-spine exercise, it has great benefit for the flexibility of the lower body, too.” Lie on your left side with your right leg flexed up toward your waist. Place your left hand on the flexed leg to help it stay on the ground. Reach for your left foot with your right hand and pull the heel toward your hips. Finally, take a breath and exhale as you rotate your right shoulder toward the ground. Do eight to 10 reps, and then repeat on the opposite side.

“I like this exercise not only for isolating the thoracic-spine region, which is a key to good rotation in the golf swing, but also because it improves lateral flexion, which means being able to stay in posture as you rotate. It should go a long way for your ball-striking,” Campbell says. Kneel with your torso upright and your hands behind your head, elbows flared to your sides. Laterally bend to the right so your mid-section contracts on that side above your waistline. Return to the start position, then slightly rotate your torso to the right, and laterally bend down again. Do 10 reps in each direction, gradually increasing the rotation of your torso with each rep.

“These improve mid-back and lower-body mobility. And if you add resistance like holding a dumbbell or an anchored band, you’ll challenge your shoulder blades’ stability. That stability is key to proper rotation and control of the club throughout the swing,” Campbell says. Begin in a tall-kneeling position and then step forward with your right leg so it’s bent 90 degrees in front of your tor-so. Your left leg also should remain bent at 90 degrees. Place your left hand next to your right foot while reaching upward with your right hand (your torso will rotate toward your right leg). The goal is to keep your right leg still as you reach. Do eight to 10 reps, then repeat with the opposite arm-and-leg configuration.

“This is the most challenging of the mid-back exercises. It will test your ability to be mobile and stable in a dynamic way—just like you need to be when you swing a club at faster speeds,” Campbell says. “Go slow and use a mirror to check your form. It’s OK if you can’t complete a full rep at first. Keep trying.” Start in a tall-kneeling position with a 5-iron extended over your head. Keep-ing the club level, step forward with your right leg into a half-kneeling position and rotate your torso toward that leg. Once you feel stable, push off of the right leg and stand up, balancing on that foot as you raise your left leg up to waist height. Once you have your balance, rotate your body toward the raised leg. Do 10 reps, posting on each leg.

Supine pelvic tilts to bridges

“When you swing, it’s difficult to create an efficient energy transfer from your body to the golf club if your pelvis is unstable,” Campbell says. “This exercise is base camp for hip and pelvic stability.” Lying on your back with your spine in a neutral/flat position, arch your back for a couple of seconds, then press it into the floor for the same amount of time. Then let your spine return to a neutral position, neither arched nor pressing into the ground. Next, squeeze your glutes and raise your pelvis toward the ceiling. Hold this bridge position for several seconds and then slowly lower yourself back into the neutral-spine pose that started the exercise. Do two sets of eight reps.

“We haven’t talked much about the role of the abs, but this exercise will strengthen them for better swing stability. It also improves your awareness and control of the pelvis,” Campbell says. “The ability to hinge from the hip joints of the pelvis into a quality address posture is key to a functional golf swing.” Lie on your back with your legs completely straight and flat on the ground. Without using any rocking momentum, raise both legs simultaneously until they are perpendicular to the ground (or as high as you can raise them without letting them bend). Keeping the right leg in this vertical position, let the left slowly lower to the ground while staying straight. After a couple of seconds, return to the start position. Do 16 reps alternating the leg that’s lowered.

“To ultimately improve hip rotation, it’s critical that the joint move through as much range of motion as possible without compensation,” Campbell says.

“Improving control of this isolated hip motion is a big step toward swinging in the correct lower-body-to-upper body sequence in the downswing.” Starting with your hands and knees on the floor in a quadruped position, lift your right leg off the ground and use your right hip to move the leg in a circular pattern around the side of your body. The key is to do this while keeping your spine neutral and your arms straight and pushing into the ground. Don’t arch your back or let your elbows bend. Do 12 full circles with each leg.

Standing pelvis tilts and turns

“I call this the ‘Big Three’ for the pelvis, because it trains front-ward and backward pelvic tilting and rotation in one exercise,” Campbell says. “Using a golf club to steady the body is great because it lets you isolate the hips to train independent motion from the upper body. Every golfer knows that the lower body has to lead the way in the downswing.” Get in your golf address posture with your hands planted on top of a club. Keep your upper body still as you arch your lower back, extend your lower back and then finally rotate your hips in the direction of your downswing. If you feel vibration in your pelvis or generally struggle, return to doing supine pelvic tilts until you can graduate to these. Do 10 to 12 reps, and then repeat with the pelvis rotating in the opposite direction.

Most amateurs struggle to manufacture different shots off the tee, particularly if they go against the player’s natural shot shape. One reason is, they make it too complicated. When it comes time to hit a draw, they might alter their alignment, ball position, grip, clubface aim—you name it. The tweaks can be endless.

But as 2020 PGA champion Collin Morikawa explains, you don’t have to change a lot to create your desired ball flight. For Morikawa, the difference between hitting a draw or fade is as simple as how you follow through—lower for a draw and higher for a fade. “Finish is huge for me,” Morikawa says. “[For shot shape] a lot has to do with where I’m going to finish.”

As Morikawa demonstrates in this video, when the club finishes low and around the body, slightly below head height, the clubface tends to release a little more through impact and impart right-to-left spin on the ball. Conversely, when the club finishes higher, that promotes less face rotation through the ball, imparting left-to-right spin and producing a fade.

Morikawa explains how he shapes the ball in the below video:

“Undercover Lessons: Collin Morikawa” is one of more than 80 video programs in Golf Digest Schools. Take your game to the next level with instruction from the top teachers and players. And with the new Golf Digest Schools app, you can bring it all with you anywhere you go. Check out Golf Digest Schools, a revolutionary experience in golf instruction.

Perhaps it’s a reflection of golf’s youth movement or a new spike in the game’s popularity, but whatever the reason, we believe there are more talented golf instructors under the age of 40 than ever before. Back in 2008, when we debuted our biennial list, we identified 20 teachers in their 20s and 30s who were worthy of national recognition. Our latest group of award winners stands at 177. It’s a diverse group, and a creative one, too. We challenged our winners to provide an “original” golf tip, and their response was impressive. Hopefully you’ll learn a few things from them. These are Golf Digest’s Best Young Teachers in America.

BEST YOUNG TEACHERS IN AMERICA 2021-2022

Knickerbocker C.C., Tenafly, N.J.

Springdale G.C., Princeton, N.J.

Hamilton Farm G.C., Gladstone, N.J.

Tashua Knolls G. Cse., Trumbull, Conn.

Saucon Valley C.C., Bethlehem, Pa.

Rolling Green G.C., Springfield, Pa.

Earl Cooper Golf at Union League G.C., Torresdale, Philadelphia

The Bridge G.C., Bridgehampton, N.Y.

Rolling Green G.C., Springfield, Pa.

Trump G. Links at Ferry Point, New York City

Northeast Performance Institute, Portland, Conn.

Holly Ridge G.C., Sandwich, Mass.

Ridgewood C.C., Danbury, Conn.

Quaker Ridge G.C., Scarsdale, N.Y.

GolfTec Woodbridge, Metuchen, N.J.

Plainfield C.C., Edison, N.J.

Sankaty Head G.C., Siasconset, Mass.

Chester Valley G.C., Malvern, Pa.

Pure Drive Golf, Woburn, Mass.

Nemacolin Resort, Farmington, Pa.

Brae Burn C.C., West Newton, Mass.

Roxiticus G.C., Mendham, N.J.

The Golf Performance Center, Ridgefield, Conn.

Liberty National G.C., Jersey City, N.J.

Wentworth by the Sea C.C., Rye, N.H.

Forsgate C.C., Monroe Township, N.J.

On Course Golf Academy, New Durham, N.H.

Westchester C.C., Rye, N.Y.

Sebonack G.C., Southampton, N.Y.

Woodcrest C.C., Cherry Hill, N.J.

The Bridge Golf Harlem Learning Center, New York City

Burlington C.C., Mount Holly, N.J.

DiJulia Golf, New Hope, Pa.

Rossi Golf Center, Exton, Pa.

The Stanwich C., Greenwich, Conn.

(* indicates the instructor is new to the list)

Bayville G.C., Virginia Beach, Va.

Baltimore C.C., Lutherville, Md.

Golf House Tennessee, Franklin

Westwood C.C., Vienna, Va.

Troubadour G. & Field Club, College Grove, Tenn.

Mitchell Moore Golf Academy, Hopkinsville, Ky.

TPC Potomac (Md.) at Avenel Farm

Salisbury C.C., Midlothian, Va.

Westhaven G.C., Franklin, Tenn.

Congressional C.C., Bethesda, Md.

Lowcountry Lessons at Patriots Point Links, Mount Pleasant, S.C.

The G.C. at Lansdowne, Leesburg, Va.

Marc Lapointe Golf Academy, Fort Mill, S.C.

Northstone C.C., Huntersville, N.C.

The Golf Academy at Persimmon Ridge, Louisville

High Performance Golf Academy, Nicholasville, Ky.

Sea Island G.C., St. Simons Island, Ga.

Cove Cay G.C., Clearwater, Fla.

La Gorce C.C., Miami Beach

The C.C. of Birmingham (Ala.)

Bonita Bay C., Bonita Springs, Fla.

Bonita Bay C., Bonita Springs, Fla.

The G.C. at South Hampton, St. Augustine, Fla.

The Club at Savannah Quarters, Pooler, Ga.

Rick Smith Golf Performance Center, Doral, Fla.

Steven DeBoer Golf Academy, Hanceville, Ala.

Matt DeJohn Golf Academy, Port St. Lucie, Fla.

PGA Tour Performance Center at TPC Sawgrass, Ponte Vedra Beach

West Bay C., Estero, Fla.

Shadow Wood C.C., Bonita Springs, Fla.

Wilderness C.C., Naples, Fla.

Nick Duffy Golf at Orange County National Golf Center, Winter Garden, Fla.

Jim McLean Golf School Biltmore Miami, Coral Gables, Fla.

The Leadbetter Golf Academy, Acworth, Ga.

Frederica G.C., St. Simons Island, Ga.

PGA Tour Performance Center at TPC Sawgrass, Ponte Vedra Beach

GolfTec Carrollwood, Tampa, Fla.

Orange County National Golf Center, Winter Garden, Fla.

Jim McLean Golf School Biltmore Miami, Coral Gables, Fla.

The Concession G.C., Bradenton, Fla.

The Leadbetter Golf Academy ChampionsGate, Fla.

Celebration (Fla.) Golf Academy

Quail West G. & C.C., Naples, Fla.

John Webster Golf Academy at The Breakers, Palm Beach

Jim McLean Golf School Biltmore Miami, Coral Gables, Fla.

The Leadbetter Golf Academy, ChampionsGate, Fla.

Naples (Fla.) National G.C.

Jim McLean Golf School at Miami Beach G.C.

Pelican G.C., Belleair, Fla.

PGA Tour Performance Center at TPC Sawgrass, Ponte Vedra Beach

Cuscowilla G.C., Eatonton, Ga.

Jim McLean Golf School at Miami Beach G.C.

Atlantic Beach (Fla.) C.C.

Jim McLean Golf School Biltmore Miami, Coral Gables, Fla.

Royal Melbourne C.C., Long Grove, Ill.

Cantigny G., Wheaton, Ill.

Interlachen C.C., Edina, Minn.

The Meadows G. Cse., Allendale, Mich.

Westmoor C.C., Brookfield, Wis.

Skokie C.C., Glencoe, Ill.

C.C. of Detroit, Grosse Pointe Farms, Mich.

Deerpath G. Cse., Lake Forest, Ill.

Falcon Ridge G.C., Lenexa, Kan.

Muirfield Village G.C., Dublin, Ohio

The Golf Room, Dublin, Ohio

Sykes/Lady Overland Park (Kan.) G. Cse.

TPS Player Service, Naperville, Ill.

Keller G. Cse., Maplewood, Minn.

Ruth Lake C.C., Hinsdale, Ill.

Lake Shore C.C., Glencoe, Ill.

Legacy Golf Performance Center, Phoenix

Dallas C.C., Highland Park, Texas

Mike Bury Golf Academy, Dallas

Maridoe G.C., Carrollton, Texas

Altus Performance, The Colony, Texas

GolfTec The Woodlands (Texas)

Axis Golf Academy and Fitting Center, Cypress, Texas

JPK Golf Instruction, Scottsdale

Forest Highlands G.C., Flagstaff , Ariz.

The Westin Kierland G.C., Scottsdale

Altus Performance, The Colony, Texas

Altus Performance at Trinity Forest G.C., Dallas

Hank Haney Golf Ranch at Vista Ridge, Lewisville, Texas

Superstition Mountain C.C., Gold Canyon, Ariz.

Desert Mountain C., Scottsdale

Tour Striker Golf Academy at The Raven G.C., Phoenix

America Golf Academy at Paradise Valley G. Cse., Phoenix

Starfire G.C., Scottsdale

Southern Hills C.C., Tulsa

Jeff Isler Golf, Southlake, Texas

Red Hawk G.C., Las Cruces, N.M.

Denton C.C., Argyle, Texas

Desert Mountain C., Scottsdale

Golf Performance Group at Northgate C.C., Houston

Omni La Costa Golf Performance Institute, Carlsbad, Calif.

Meadow Springs C.C., Richland, Wash.

PGA West Golf Academy, La Quinta, Calif.

Rolling Hills C.C., Rolling Hills Estates, Calif.

Will Robins Golf, Folsom, Calif.

Twin Lakes G. Cse., Goleta, Calif.

Alison Curdt Golf at Wood Ranch G.C., Simi Valley, Calif.

Brentwood C.C., Los Angeles

Experience Golf at Common Ground G. Cse., Aurora, Colo.

La Rinconada C.C., Los Gatos, Calif.

Balboa G. Cse., Encino, Calif.

Jon Horner Golf Academy at CordeValle, San Martin, Calif.

Langdon Farms G.C., Aurora, Ore.

Callaway Golf, Carlsbad, Calif.

Maderas Golf Academy, Poway, Calif.

Erin Menath Golf, Redmond, Wash.

GolfTec Westminster (Colo.)

The Club at 3 Creek, Jackson, Wyo.

GolfTec Headquarters, Englewood, Colo.

Rock Creek Cattle Company, Deer Lodge, Mont.

Aviara Golf Academy, Carlsbad, Calif.

Aviara Golf Academy, Carlsbad, Calif.

Ko Olina Golf Academy, Kapolei, Hawaii

GolfTec Headquarters, Englewood, Colo.

Southern Highlands G.C., Las Vegas

Rick Smith Golf Academy, Rancho Palos Verdes, Calif.

The Los Angeles (Calif.) C.C.

California State University, Northridge

Henry Brunton Golf Academy at Strawberry Farms, Irvine, Calif.

A common fault among average golfers is hanging back on the downswing and flipping the club at the ball. It usually results in a loss of power, poor contact and a nasty slice. Try this exercise from top trainer Tyler Campbell to groove a proper weight shift and develop more speed by learning to push harder off the ground.

Campbell, the head trainer at the Golf Performance Center in Ridgefield, Conn., says the single-arm dumbbell press with rotation is great for golfers because it teaches them to leverage off the ground and get to their front side as they rotate—two major keys to hitting powerful golf shots.

Holding a dumbbell in your right hand at shoulder height, set your hips and feet square in front of you. Then, go into a quarter squat and load your weight into your right side. Using the ground, simultaneously press the dumbbell up as you rotate your hips and chest to the left. You should finish on your left foot with your right bicep in line with your head. Once you get used to the move, try to rotate faster and really punch the dumbbell up.

Campbell demonstrates the proper form below:

If you find yourself hanging back, you probably have that same problem in your golf swing. Try taking the dumbbell out of the equation and just concentrate on driving from your right foot to your left foot as you turn through. Your main focus in this exercise should be getting your weight to fully transfer. Think, load and explode.

Looking for more golf-specific exercises to help you hit longer, straighter shots? Learn more about Tyler Campbell’s complete program, “Fast-Track Fitness,” in Golf Digest Schools now.

Check out all the fitness programs available in Golf Digest Schools with a 14-day free trial—this month only. Boost your power, mobility and energy level, and find out what a little off-season fitness can do for your game. (Hint: You’re going to like it.)

Imagine you have a big walk-in closet where you store all your golf skills. On the shelves and hangers you keep your abilities to split a tight, tree-lined fairway with your driver, hit a long iron off a tight lie, and execute a downhill pitch over water—all the shots that make most amateurs feel uneasy. The only problem is, if you attempt to access one of those skills—but you’ve got strong doubt in your mind about pulling the shot off — that closet door is going to be locked. I’m sure you’ve experienced that feeling on the golf course where fear prevented you from swinging like you normally would. In this article, I’m going to help you face your trepidation of eight common scary shots. I’ll provide you with a swing tip to help your execution, and a swing thought that lets you access your skills closet. It’s natural to have negative thoughts when you play. We all do. You just have to know how to overcome them. —WITH RON KASPRISKE

WHEN YOU CAN’T AFFORD TO TAKE AN UNPLAYABLE LIE
Sometimes you have no choice but to try to extricate your ball from a horrendous lie in deep grass. Many golfers freeze when facing this lie, too worried they can’t get it out. To overcome that fear, focus on the process to hit this shot. You want to grab a wedge, open its face so it’s pointing skyward, and grip it as tightly as you can. Also try to get on solid footing with your weight favoring your lead leg. To get your mind off whiffing, focus on swinging sharply down with firm wrists and let the heel of the club lead the way into impact. Keep your eyes on the ball the whole way down.

WHEN YOU HAVE TO HIT DRIVER
Whether there’s a forced carry or you have to reach the green in regulation, sometimes you need to pull driver on tough holes for extra distance. My advice for these situations blends the mechanical with the psychological. Too often nerves make you tighten up and try to steer the ball into the fairway. But what you want is to make the most freewheeling swing you can. Sure, play the shot shape you’re most comfortable with, but you’ve got to let it fly. And here’s some reverse psychology: Instead of thinking it’s a tight hole, imagine you’re about to drive it into the ocean. Just get up there and let it rip.

WHEN IT’S A MIDDLE OR LONG IRON WITH NO CUSHION
Sometimes finding the fairway off the tee is bittersweet. Modern agronomy has made fairway grass shorter and firmer, and when you have no cushion for a longer approach shot, the lie can freak you out. Instead, think the opposite: You’ve actually got a terrific lie—clean access to the back of the ball. Now you can focus on making good contact. Take a few practice swings next to the ball, noting where the club bottoms out. Keep adjusting your stance until the low point of the swing is past the ball. Then step in and swing, making sure the club hits the turf after it strikes the ball.

WHEN FACED WITH A FORCED CARRY FROM THE ROUGH
Let’s do the math. If you have to carry a penalty area or something similar from the rough, and you’re not sure you can do it, lay up. If you put it back in the fairway, you’re probably only going to sacrifice one shot, and one shot is easy to make up. But if you go for the green and fail, you’re likely going to add more than one shot to your score, sometimes a lot more. With that said, if you have to go for it, take one club longer than normal, open the face slightly, and set up with 70 percent of your weight on your lead foot. Then make a steeper swing into the ball. Focus only on solid contact.

WHEN YOU’RE IN THE SAND INSIDE OF 100 YARDS
When facing a shorter fairwaybunker shot, a lot of amateurs tense up. They wonder if they’re supposed to play it like a greenside bunker shot or pick it clean. You definitely want to pick it clean. To do that, set up so the ball is close to the heel of your front foot, and the club’s shaft is leaning away from the target. The backward leaning shaft will allow you to catch it on the upswing. Solid contact is the goal, so the key is stability. Imagine you’re standing on a frozen pond and any extraneous movement will make you slip and miss. Your goal is to clip the ball off the ice without shattering it.

WHEN YOU HAVE TO GET THE BALL UP
Any time amateurs have a forced carry, there’s always going to be some anxiety. But when the ball is on a downslope, things can get dicey. The mistake is to rise out of your address posture, trying to help the ball over the hazard with a little body english. You can see here that I’ve maintained flex in my legs and made a very lowand-wide swing through the ball. The mental image that can help distract you from those nervous feelings is that the clubhead needs to land on an airport runway as it meets the ball. Let the clubhead continue along the runway after impact. Stay low to make the ball fly high.

WHEN YOU HAVE TO CHIP FROM THE FRINGE TO A CLOSE PIN
Many amateurs make a shortand-fast stab at short chips, because they mistakenly think they have to accelerate through the ball. Not true. All you need is a smooth, pendulum-like putting tempo. In fact, I want you to pretend you’re putting. Grab a wedge, set up in a narrow stance, and make a stroke back and through like a putt, including the same length. Keep the elbows soft and follow through in an unrushed pace. For great contact, pretend there’s a drop of paint on the back of the ball and another on the center of the clubface and connect the dots.

WHEN YOU’RE WAY ABOVE THE HOLE
When many golfers are faced with the simplest task of just getting a putt started on the right line and letting gravity do the work, they get super stressed and wind up jabbing at the ball. There are two ways to make slick, downhill putts easier to hole—one physical, one mental. The physical adjustment is to grip way down on the handle. A shorter lever imparts less energy on the strike. The mental adjustment is to pretend you’re putting to a hole much closer than the actual hole. It might be only a few inches in front of you, but having that visual should keep you from jabbing the putt off the green.

WHEN YOU NEED TO FLOP IT
▶ I love hitting flop shots. They look hard to execute, but they’re not—and you look cool doing it. Grab your lob wedge, open the face so it’s pointing to the sky, and lower the shaft at address so you’re hands are well below your belt line. When you swing, let the clubhead glide along the grass, keeping the shaft in line with your trail arm. There is very little wrist action. Just imagine that the clubhead is a thin piece of paper sliding under the bottom of the ball.

JOSH ZANDER, a Golf Digest Teaching Professional, is at Stanford (Calif.) University Golf Course.

Next time you get to a par 3, compare the divots on the back tee to the ones on the closer tees. You should see two differences: Divot holes from better players start past the ball (you can usually tell where the tee was), and they point to the target. The ones from less-skilled players start behind the ball and point left, often way left.

The ground can tell you a lot about what was going on at impact. Good iron shots come from ball-then turf contact, and a straight divot is a good indicator that the shot was on target. If the divot hole starts behind where the ball was and goes left, you know the shot was fat and produced a pull or a slice.

Here’s how to improve your divots, which will lead to better iron play. First, focus on starting your downswing from the ground up, with your lower body leading. That’ll keep the club to the inside so your arms can extend out to the ball and produce a straighter swing path and a straighter divot.

Next, feel like your chest is “covering the ball” at impact. You can see that my shirt buttons are directly over where the divot starts—that’s what covering it means. It’s a result of moving toward the target, which positions the low point of the swing forward so you strike the ball before the ground. That’s how you hit it pure and take a pro divot. Now go pick it up and repair the turf! —WITH PETER MORRICE

At the 1995 Masters, Tiger played with Jose Maria Olazabal in the first round. I was working with both at the time, and their games were very different. Tiger was a 19-year-old bomber. Jose Maria was a short-game king. Giving up 50 yards on drives, Jose Maria later told me that after two holes, he never watched Tiger hit another tee shot. But Jose Maria shot 66 that day to Tiger’s 72.

I asked Tiger how it went, and all he wanted to do was learn more about how Jose Maria chipped. Over the next few years, Tiger revamped his wedge game, and we often talked about that day at Augusta. He always wants to adapt what he sees in the great champions. Tiger has many special skills, but his desire to keep learning is the one I admire the most.

Admit it. You’ve spent hours at the practice range, hitting ball after ball with your pitching wedge or 9-iron, looking for that pure contact tour players seem to achieve effortlessly. You’ve sped up your swing, slowed it down, and done all kinds of things with your hands, all in an effort to make the ball fly with predictable trajectory and the backspin to stop your shots by the hole.

But the secret isn’t in your hands, or in the dirt. It’s in your backswing.

“Hitting good short iron shots has nothing to do with speed. It’s about getting the club to come into the ground and the ball on the right angle and path,” says Golf Digest Top 50 Teacher Michael Jacobs. “That means you need more ‘vertical’ in your swing.”

We can learn from two of the best ball-strikers on tour, who led the PGA Tour in strokes gained/approach in the 2019-’20 season—Justin Thomas and Collin Morikawa. Though tour players are very good at doing things average players can’t do, we can study how they hit short irons and try to copy their positions.

The first key to finding the center of the clubface with your short irons, Jacobs says, is to forget the idea that you should use the same swing for these clubs as you would for a hybrid or a driver.

“Look at Justin Thomas in the video below. At two-thirds of the way through his backswing, his left arm is in line with the top of his right shoulder, or his collarbone,” says Jacobs.

“For most players, it’s way lower, under where the logo would be on the shirt. The arm that low means the shaft is also low, which might work for a more sweeping swing but won’t help you hit short irons well.”

To work on it, make some less-than-full swings with a short iron where you do the opposite of what you might have heard when it comes to using a headcover under your trail arm as a training aid. Instead of holding it under there for the swing, start with it tucked there and make sure you drop it early in the backswing.

“When you can get that left arm in line with your collarbone—like Collin Morikawa also does, above—the club stays more in front of your body early, instead of getting behind you. You won’t be swinging any faster, but you’ll make much better contact and produce better ball speed and a more predictable launch.”

ORLANDO — The entire golf world’s eyes seem to fixed on the swing of a pre-teen.

During Thursday’s pro-am for the PNC, Charlie’s athletic and powerful swing sparked multiple comparisons to the swing of a young Tiger.

Woods spoke in detail with Golf Digest about his son’s move, and how it compares to how he used to swing it when he was a junior.

“Different time and era,” Woods said. “When I grew up, my swing was—the philosophy was different. It was, at that time, people were sliding the legs out, trying to get the high finish. My swing wasn’t quite like that, I turned my hips early, I snapped my legs a little bit. But that was different, at that time, most people at that time wanted me to have a reverse C. K at the top, reverse C on the way through.

“Now as we have a better understanding of the game and how much the ground plays an important part of it, the legs and how they work, Charlie’s swing is different than mine. He uses his legs way better than I ever did, and probably still do. But that’s just the evolution of learning the game.”

Woods said he stresses to his son an old tip that his father, Earl, engrained in him.

“I stress to him over and over again: You can hit it as hard as you want. All you have to do is two simple things: hit it in the middle of the face every single time, and have a nice finish…that’s what I preach to him all the time. Where did you hit it on the face?

“He feels it. Whether it’s on the heel or toe, whether it’s a little thin, he may have caught it a groove thin—you can feel all that. I think that’s important to have that sense, so you can fix it for the next one.”

If all it took was to have a multiple-major-winning father to guarantee PGA Tour stardom for a son, you’d have heard much more about the Nicklauses, Players, Floyds and Millers who aspired to play high-level professional golf. Charlie Woods isn’t going to get there on pure pedigree. But if you can draw lessons from a Mt. Olympus-level tactician and competitor dad—AND show off form that would make a college all-American jealous, it’s fun to speculate about what could be.

We asked Golf Digest 50 Best Teacher Randy Smith to analyze swings from Woods’ televised debut at the PNC Championship, and the experienced junior and college player advisor was as impressed as anyone. “The swings you see here are way more structured than any precocious 11-year-old I’ve ever been around,” says Smith, who has guided players like Justin Leonard and Scottie Scheffler from childhood to the tour in his more than 40 years of coaching.

“You see plenty of kids at this age who can whale at it. Charlie is not only strong enough to support the club, but he makes a swing that matches the shot he’s hitting. He’s not hitting balls. He’s hitting shots.”

Smith’s frame-by-frame technical commentary starts below, but he says the way Charlie carries himself is as much of an achievement as the mechanical refinement he shows off when he swings.

“When I go to a junior tournament to watch a player, I’m looking at what he or she is doing before the round and between shots as much as watching the swings,” says Smith.

“Watching Charlie this week is like watching a little tour player. He’s got all the cameras on him, but he’s not fiddling with his bag or looking over at his dad for cues about what he should be doing. The greatest player to ever play is hitting balls, and they don’t even look at each other. It’s so easy to mess a kid up with the wrong kind of training or too much pressure. Nobody is trying to make Charlie look perfect. He’s just doing his thing, and that’s a credit to his dad. I can’t wait to see what he does next, and I’m rooting for him every step of the way.”

Charlie Woods, Dec. 18, 2020, photographed at the Ritz Carlton Golf Club in Orlando:

Young kids tend to be wild and out of control with their driver. An 11-year-old typically isn’t strong enough to support the weight of the club, so they let the club control their positions. Not this 11-year-old.  He gets it light going back and hits the crap out of it. He’s an itty bitty kid, and he doesn’t have a lot of mass, but he’s obviously really strong. He makes it look easy. —Randy Smith

I love the amount of space Charlie is creating here. He takes the club back with a full turn of his shoulders—that’s what we all aspire to do.

There’s nothing loose or wild with his swing. The clubface control at the top? It’s beyond comprehension for his age. Charlie has total feel for where the club is—and you see him plant on his left side and make a balanced finish.