- 7 minutes ago
In this video, Deputy Editor Joel Tadman is joined by Trump Turnberry head professional Alistair Kyle to talk through the 8 things Rory McIlroy does that you can incorporate into your own games to improve your scores!
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00:00Rory McIlroy is undoubtedly one of the best golfers
00:02of our generation.
00:03And while most of us can't swing the driver
00:05at 128 miles an hour or win six DP World Tour
00:09or the Amerit titles, there are some things
00:11that we absolutely can copy from what Rory McIlroy does
00:15and incorporate into our own games.
00:17So in this video, I'm joined by Trump Turnberry head pro,
00:20Alistair Karl, we're gonna unpack some of the things
00:22that Rory McIlroy does that we can too.
00:25And make sure you stick around for number four,
00:27you'll be kicking yourself that you haven't been doing it
00:29up until now.
00:35So Alistair, what's the first thing that Rory McIlroy does
00:38that amateur golfers should definitely copy and learn from?
00:43So Rory obviously being a really good driver of the ball.
00:47One thing that's quite noticeable about Rory's setup
00:50is when he's addressing the ball,
00:53his body is behind the golf ball
00:56and he's got a nice V-shape with his arms here
01:00and the right shoulder is lower than the left.
01:04So this enables Rory to hit upward on the golf ball
01:08and typically he can hit up on it like six or seven degrees,
01:11which is quite uncommon for an amateur golfer.
01:14But a lot of amateurs are down on the ball two, three, four degrees,
01:20sometimes even more, which is killing their distance.
01:22So if they can get even slightly closer to zero as a number on a launch monitor,
01:28that's gonna enable them to hit the ball quite a bit further.
01:30So what do you see in amateurs in the way they set up to the ball,
01:33a driver that encourages that higher spin number?
01:36How do they set up to the ball?
01:37So a lot of times with a driver, people's ball would be quite central.
01:42So that would mean that their sternum head is in line with the ball.
01:47So by shifting the ball to more appropriately up towards the left heel,
01:51that's going to get your body behind the ball.
01:53Even though people say they do have the correct ball position,
01:56or appropriate ball position for them, some people, their shoulders are still very level.
02:02So there's no shoulder that's lower.
02:04The right shoulder isn't lower than the left.
02:06So if they're more in this sort of position,
02:10that's probably going to encourage the club to work downward into the ball,
02:13which is going to potentially make the ball spin too much and lose a lot of distance.
02:18Yeah, and two other things I've noticed with Rory,
02:20he definitely tees the ball a lot higher than most amateur golfers here.
02:24Obviously that's going to encourage more of an upward hit, is that correct?
02:26Yeah, definitely, yeah.
02:28And also you notice when he's on the tee sort of wiggling around,
02:31he does sort of tend to just wiggle this sort of alignment of his shoulders a little bit
02:35to encourage that draw. What's he doing there and how does that help him?
02:38Yeah, so obviously he's a drawer of the golf ball, so the ball is going to be moving right to
02:42left,
02:43so he needs to be aiming more on the right side of the fairway to allow for that curve.
02:48So yeah, you can see him, he sometimes can be a little bit fidgety,
02:52but that's just him getting comfortable and he's always kind of pushing this left shoulder forward.
02:56which is angling his shoulders more to the right.
02:58So it's going to help him swing out to the right and encourage that.
03:00Yeah, keep his path a little bit more out to the right,
03:02and then if he can match up his club face just inside that, he'll get that nice draw shape.
03:08So for Rory McIlroy in years gone by, his wedge game was a bit of an Achilles heel.
03:14His approach to it was generally he would always hit full shots, so whether that's a 60 degree,
03:1956, 52, he's generally hitting it flat out 100% and then would struggle sometimes if the greens were
03:27soft and fast, the ball would spin too much. If it was windy, he would struggle to control the flight
03:33of it. There'd be too much spin on the ball and he would ultimately lose control of where that ball's
03:38going to end up. See that quite a lot with amateurs as well, they don't really know how to take
03:44distance
03:45off of a shot. So a good way to practice it is say for example, your pitching wedge goes 120
03:50yards,
03:52take an eight iron and see if you can get that to go 120 yards and that'll allow you to
03:58develop the
03:58feeling and become comfortable with hitting shots that aren't full. So I'm going to hit a couple
04:03shots here with my 52 degree. So normally for me, this club would go about 120 yards carry
04:10and I would occasionally hit it flat out if maybe the pin position meant that I had to get the
04:18ball
04:18stopping quicker or say it was a flat cam day and I knew how far I had to carry it.
04:23I know how far the
04:24full shot goes. So I'll go ahead and hit one here. And then if I'm trying to take off some
04:36speed now,
04:37a lot of amateurs I'll see will generally have the same setup, try and swing slower or shorter,
04:45which can be quite difficult to do. So a nice way to do it is change your setup. So this
04:53would be my
04:53normal setup. So then when I'm trying to take some distance off, I'm going to bring my stance in a
05:00little bit narrower. So that's going to reduce the club speed. And then I'm going to go about an inch
05:08down the grip. That's making the golf club shorter. So I'm not going to have as much club speed. So
05:14this
05:14is going to take a bit of distance off. It's also going to reduce the spin, should come out a
05:18little bit
05:18lower. So then I'm going to be more in control of the ball flight. So let's hit one here.
05:31So as you can see from the numbers, the setup adjustments that I made took a little bit of
05:37distance off the shot. It's reduced the spin and ultimately allows me to be a bit more in control
05:43of the ball of the ball flight. So now we're going to talk about Rory's chipping and everyone,
05:49I'm pretty sure, will remember Rory's amazing chip shot that he hit at the Ryder Cup in Rome where
05:53sort of checked up nicely by the pin, I think it was the 17th hole. He's widely regarded as a
05:58pretty good chipper of the golf ball. What does he do in his technique that amateur golfers watching
06:03this video can copy easily that was going to have a pretty immediate impact on their results around the
06:09right? I see it quite a lot in lessons where a golfer is hitting just a 10 or 15 yard
06:14chip shot,
06:16but they're setting up as if they're about to hit a drive almost where their stance is very wide.
06:22So there's no need to do that for a small chip shot. So the way I like to think of
06:26it is if you're
06:26hitting a small shot, have a smaller setup. So the first point would be to have, if it's just a
06:32very
06:32simple small chip shot, have your feet about one club head distance apart. That's really it for
06:39setup wise. And one more thing is that Rory's always staying quite centred on top of the ball.
06:45His weight is fairly even, slightly favouring his left side on these short chip shots and throughout
06:53the shot he's keeping it there. So there's no weight shifts to the right, he's leaning slightly left and
07:00he's just keeping it, keeping it there throughout the duration of the shot. So he's got this nice Y
07:05shape with his arms and his shoulders and the only real thing he's thinking about is trying to rock
07:12his shoulders and maintain the same arm position. So a little bit like that, so just a rock of the
07:19shoulders. A lot of golfers I see the arm, the structure of the arms will change throughout the
07:25shot. So backswing, the arms can separate a little bit and what that does is it takes the club further
07:31away from the ground. So from there the golfer then has to try and get the club back to the
07:35ground
07:35and it can mean that the club's going to hit the ground in a different place on different shots.
07:41Similarly on the way through a lot of golfers are trying to get the ball higher up in the air
07:45for a
07:46chip shot and same thing the arms will start to separate and the club's coming further away from the
07:52ground which makes it harder to hit a decent chip shot, decent contact with the ground.
08:00Recently in the media Rory was talking about what he's been doing recently practicing and he said that
08:06he basically locked himself away for three weeks and just hit shots into a net without any feedback
08:13because he was trying to work on his swing but if he was seeing the result of the ball flight
08:20he maybe
08:21wouldn't have worked on the swing quite the same way. So I see it quite often teaching golfers that
08:27we're trying to make a change to their swing to improve their ball flight and they'll do it fine
08:32in the lesson and then as soon as they go away to practice they're reacting to the ball flight. So
08:37golfers are very instinctive where they don't really know that they're making changes but they are reacting
08:44to the flight of the ball that they see. So whether that's changing their club face or their club path
08:49or how much
08:49they're hitting down in the ball they will be making changes because of the flight that they're seeing.
08:54So it's probably not a bad idea sometimes if you are working on your swing so you've been for a
08:58lesson
08:58you're working on the right things so let's hit one into the net here.
09:09Okay so there you have it so I've got no idea where that ball went but that allows me to
09:13continue to
09:14work on what I'm trying to work on at the moment. So I'm trying to work on the top of
09:18my back swing
09:19trying to feel like my weight's a little bit more left and I'm swinging a little bit longer.
09:24Not getting the feedback of that allows me to continue to work on that. I would do that until
09:32the motion that I'm trying to create, the feeling that I'm trying to create in my swing feels a bit
09:35more
09:35normal then it's probably time to go out onto the range and start to see where the ball is actually
09:40going.
09:42So yeah even doing a little you could alternate sometimes maybe do one session where you're not
09:47looking at the outcome of the shot and then the next time go and see where the ball is going
09:52and
09:52then come back inside without the feedback to do some more without knowing where the ball is going to go.
09:59Something else we can learn from Rory McIlroy is learning from his pre-shot routine. So Rory has a pre
10:05-shot
10:05routine that's fairly consistent he does certain things a certain way and he does them all the time.
10:11So the first thing he does is he'll normally take a practice swing behind the ball not quite a full
10:17swing but all he's really trying to focus on there is having nice rhythm so if you can carry that
10:22same
10:22rhythm into his full shot then it's ultimately going to help him hit a better shot. Once he's done the
10:28practice swing he'll be standing behind the ball and he's trying to visualize the shot that he's
10:33trying to play so he's normally going to be visualizing a five to ten yard draw so he'll
10:39be standing here thinking where's the ball going to start where's the ball going to finish picking
10:44quite a particular target whether it's a tree in the distance a bunker in the distance so he's
10:49focusing in on that. Once he's done that he'll then be thinking about his breathing so especially if
10:56he's back nine of a major on a Sunday tensions are high heart rates through the roof if he can
11:01make a few
11:01deep breaths before he goes into the shot it's going to give him more more success with the shot
11:06and he'll be able to handle the situation a bit better. The last thing I like about Rory's routine
11:12is that it's the same every time so there is an element of consistency to it so having a consistent
11:17routine that when he's under pressure he can rely on so that's something that he knows he can go to
11:23go
11:23through his routine and he's set up for the shot the same way he would be you know in the
11:27first hole of
11:28major compared to the 72nd hole he's he's able to handle those pressure situations because he's
11:34got a routine to rely on so let's go and hit one so another thing we can learn from Rory
11:48is his body
11:50language so in the past he's been when he's been playing majors and not been as successful as he
11:56wanted to he hits a couple of bad shots maybe misses a short putt he looks quite dejected looks
12:01quite upset and you can you can see it if you were to watch on tv and just tune into
12:06that hole you can
12:07kind of tell how he's been playing where it's something he's definitely worked on where he hits
12:12a bad shot so he loses the ball three putts and he's obviously not going to be happy about that
12:18but
12:18he doesn't let that affect the rest of the road so he'll try and maintain his posture he'll try and
12:24stay
12:24upright when he's walking he'll keep his shoulders back and he'll try and keep his eyes above the flag
12:29so that's going to hopefully allow him to get over mistakes quicker try not to dwell on the past
12:35and be able to move on and focus on the next shot he's got so i'm back with you in
12:40this one talking
12:40about Rory's gym routine and fitness routine now we know if you look at him down the years he was
12:45quite
12:46a sort of skinny guy a lot of sort of loose body fat around different places but if you look
12:50at him now
12:51he's very built out um seems to have a lot of bulk in his legs and his upper body uh
12:56so clearly he's
12:57been doing a lot of work in the in the gym what can golfers take away from the way he's
13:02um built his
13:03body in terms of his golf swing and generating power and speed yeah what are the things they should
13:08be considering when it comes to trying to improve their body to help their golf yeah so Rory's approach
13:13to like most golfers professional golfers is that they're they'll be working on their full body
13:17they're not just working on like golf specific things that that term kind of gets thrown about
13:22a little bit but um definitely just working on his general body strength and then his power output
13:29so be able to like he'll be lifting heavy weights with squats deadlifts lunges and stuff like that
13:35doing pull-ups but then he's also got to transfer that strength into power so he'll be jumping around a
13:41lot um throwing medicine balls as hard as he can as far as he can um so that he's able
13:47to hit the
13:47ball hit the ball further another hallmark of Rory's career i'd say is the fact he's managed to stay
13:52relatively injury free yeah looking back on his career he's had some minor lower back issues but
13:57compared to most other sort of high profile tour players he's basically been injury free throughout
14:03his career which i assume is testament to the work he's done in the gym and obviously his swing as
14:07well
14:07definitely yeah you look at his world ranking over the years it's not really i don't know what the
14:12highest he's been in recent years but it's probably not been outside the top 10 um since he came on
14:17the
14:17scene but he's definitely prioritizes his body he knows that's the most important most important thing
14:22for him to be able to compete and you know ultimately make make the money he does and hopefully win
14:27more
14:28majors yeah and what do you say to amateurs out there who may be a sort of hesitant or reluctant
14:33to
14:33to get in the gym and work on their on their body to improve their golf is it a genuine
14:38sort of avenue
14:39to lower scores yeah i'd say definitely um something as simple as being able to not be as fatigued
14:45on the back nine if you are generally more physically fit you're able to you know play the 15th to
14:51the 18th
14:51in the same energy you have as the first few holes and as soon as your physical energy dips your
14:57mental
14:57energy is going to dip as well so you'll start to make mental errors decision making errors if your
15:03body's feeling it um so yeah definitely getting in the gym with the help of someone that knows what
15:07they're doing and get a program that's suited to that person can can definitely make a difference to
15:13your your golf so there you go some solid advice that i definitely struggle on the last few holes
15:17of my round so perhaps it's time for me to get in the gym as well just like rory so
15:22with regards to
15:22putting there's one thing that rory does that everybody can add into their game it's something that i
15:28actually do as well so it's when you're putting it's to help you get lined up on your target so
15:36within putting there are three main skills there's green reading there's starting the ball online and
15:41then there's judging the speed so this one's going to take care of the start line so a lot of
15:48people use
15:48the line on the ball um to get lined up at their target i'm not a huge fan of that
15:53like a lot of people
15:54so what rory does is he will pick an intermediate target somewhere in this sort of region so i've
16:02got a little um mark here on the green that i'm going to aim at so i would be checking
16:09that as i'm
16:10going through my routine um i've read this part as a straight part so now i'm trying to find something
16:16to aim at so i've shut one eye line up the shaft with the middle of the ball and then
16:21up here i can see
16:22the middle of the hole so then on that same line i've got a little point here to aim at
16:27so then all
16:28i need to do is i can aim my putter at that point and then all i need to do
16:34is then try and get the
16:35ball rolling over that point get the right speed and it should go in
16:44and that's it
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