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RollModel Analysis by Dr Paul Hurrion BIOMECHANICS EXPERT & EUROPEAN TOUR COACH WWW.QUINTIC.COM PHOTOGRAPHY: DAVID CANNON/GETTYIMAGES.COM INTERNATIONAL MAGAZINE GOLF

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Here’s a question for you: how can you realistically hope to reduce your handicap if you don’t seriously practice with the one club you use most often in every round of golf! It’s time to change. Get yourself a putting mirror, like the one Rory is using here, and commit yourself this season to working on the same drills and practice routines that I use with one the world’s most exciting young golfers. The return on your investment will be worth it...

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Page 1: Golf Instruction - Golf International Magazine

RollModelAnalysis by Dr Paul HurrionBIOMECHANICS EXPERT & EUROPEAN TOUR COACHWWW.QUINTIC.COMPHOTOGRAPHY: DAVID CANNON/GETTYIMAGES.COM

INTERNATIONALMAGAZINE

GOLF

Page 2: Golf Instruction - Golf International Magazine

INSTRUCTION THE PUTTING DOCTOR

GOLFINTERNATIONALMAG.COM MAY 201160

Here’s a question for you: how can you realistically hope to reduce yourhandicap if you don’t seriously practice with the one club you usemost often in every round of golf! It’stime to change. Get yourself a puttingmirror, like the one Rory is using here,and commit yourself this season toworking on the same drills and practiceroutines that I use with one the world’smost exciting young golfers. The returnon your investment will be worth it...

Mirror, mirror... If I had to choose just one train-ing aid for the players I coach to use regularly in theirpractice routines it would have to be a putting align-ment mirror. I believe it is the simplest and mosteffective piece of equipment you can buy when itcomes to working on all aspects of your aim, set-upand stroke. The graphics on the top of the mirrorhave certainly helped Rory to make consistent bothhis eye position and the square alignment of the put-terface behind the ball on every putt. It is easy to usefor a quick practice indoors at home or in the hotelroom as well as on the putting green.

Non negotiable... That the putterface is aimedsquare to the initial line on which you want to roll the ballis one of the ‘non-negotiable’ elements of good puttingtechnique. Simple, you might think, but you would besurprised at the number of leading professionals I haveworked with who fail to take care of this most basic oflaws at the set up. It’s that old issue of perception versusreality – what we think we are doing in golf is often a longway from what we are actually doing. Which is why it isvital you check this element regularly. Rory uses the solidtransverse lines directly behind the ball as his referencepoint. He is then able to see the line directly in front of theputter blade, which is at 90 degrees to the target. Roryknows that if he strikes the ball with an open or closedface, not only will it fail to start online but the unwantedsidespin will further be evident in the inconsistency of roll.

RollModelAnalysis by Dr Paul HurrionBIOMECHANICS EXPERT & EUROPEAN TOUR COACHWWW.QUINTIC.COMPHOTOGRAPHY: DAVID CANNON/GETTYIMAGES.COM

Routine practice with an alignmentmirror enablesyou to buildsolid set-up fundamentals...

Page 3: Golf Instruction - Golf International Magazine

MAY 2011 GOLFINTERNATIONALMAG.COM 61

Precision alignment to the target – that’s Rule No. 1The first steps you see Rory running through here aredesigned to confirm perfect alignment of both his body,eye-line and the putter face. We generally like to start off apractice session with a straight 10-foot putt – Rory will getdown behind the mirror to check that the centre line isaimed exactly down the target line. By using the alignmentguides on the mirror, Rory can then check his eye position(for him just inside the middle line), square the putterface tothe target line and confirm that the key body lines (feet,hips and shoulders) all run parallel.With the mirror fixed in place, aimed at a straight putt, I

would expect Rory to hole putt after putt from 10 feet. Andone of the vital checks I make as he hits these putts is thatRory’s eye-line is maintained from the set-up all the way toimpact – this helps to ensure that he ‘stays in the putt’. (Youdon’t ever want to peek too early – that throws the wholestroke off line). I also like to film all of the putts and drills so Ican review them in the Quintic video analysis software; wehave created a substantial library of good putts and this isalways very useful to refer back to.Once Rory is confident and rattling in the majority of

the putts he hits I then remove the mirror and continue tofilm his stroke from the same spot on the green. Doingthis introduces clubface alignment into the equation – i.e.Rory has to square the face without the benefit of thelines on the mirror. If the percentage of holed putts dropsbelow 80% we need to address the failure of being ableto repeat correct alignment. Once Rory is achieving 90% we repeat the drill with

varying length putts, and finally we find a slope andrepeat the drill with breaking putts. This drill examinesand improves Rory’s pace control, which has to be cor-rect for the ball to take the break and find the hole.

Stay focused – fixingyour eyes on the back ofthe ball and keeping yourhead still ensures thatyou ‘stay in the putt’ andkeep the putterface run-ning square to the pathof your stroke

...all designedto help youreturn the put-ter squarely tothe back of theball and start itrolling on yourchosen line

Page 4: Golf Instruction - Golf International Magazine

INSTRUCTION THE PUTTING DOCTOR

GOLFINTERNATIONALMAG.COM MAY 201162

We work constantly on stance andposture to make sure that Roryfulfils what I regard as the funda-mental laws of putting: putter-facesquare to the line of the putt, bodyand eye-line parallel to the sameline. It’s then a case of repeatingefficient motion, and the palm-together drill you see here is onethat helps to reduce any tendencyto ‘flick’ the right hand throughimpact. It’s also great for tempo,as you cannot strangle the gripwith this hold and so the player isinclined to stay relaxed and pro-duce a smooth motion. Rory usesthis drill to highlight and feel theway the shoulders and arms worktogether as a unit, and not inde-pendently of each other, as hin-ders a lot of golfers...

Palm-together drill quietenshand action and places theemphasis on the motion ofthe shoulders and armsworking as a unit

Page 5: Golf Instruction - Golf International Magazine

PAUL HURRION // RORY MCILROY

MAY 2011 GOLFINTERNATIONALMAG.COM 63

One of my main aims when working with golfers is forthem to be aware of the difference between a goodstroke and a poor stroke. This has been the basis of thework I have been doing with Rory over the last two years.Tee to green, Rory has a very good understanding of

what makes the ball go where it goes. But on an 8-footputt that just misses, say, outside the left edge, he wasn’tso sure. So, by eliminating variables such as green read-ing, alignment, squaring the clubface etc., Rory can startto build (and indeed has done) an awareness of goodand poor strokes.‘Eye Position must be Parallel’ – this is vital and Rory

uses the mirror to check that his eye line is parallel to thetarget line (especially important on breaking putts wherethere is a tendency to look towards the target instead ofcorrectly down the line of your aim). Again, using a put-

ting alignment mirror simply eliminates doubt – it teachesyou to focus on the line upon which you want to start theball rolling, and not on the final destination (i.e. the hole).And so it reduces any tendency you may have to manip-ulate the putter towards the hole – a common fault.For Rory to improve his understanding, awareness

and feel then he has to be honest with himself; if a puttmisses to the left, I need him to understand what causedit to miss left – “I felt the putter face closing” or “I felt myshoulders open and pull the putt”. In other words associ-ating feel with real.This palm-together drill you see Rory working on is a

great way to developing and trusting swing mechanics.Placing your hands on the grip like this helps to eliminateunwanted wrist ‘flip’, so allowing the shoulders, arms andwrists to work together as one unit.

Improve your tempo: work the shoulders together with the palm-grip drill

Page 6: Golf Instruction - Golf International Magazine

INSTRUCTION THE PUTTING DOCTOR

GOLFINTERNATIONALMAG.COM MAY 201164

Tempo is the secret tofeel – flow your strokefor a better strikeFinally, let me leave you with a switch exercise that canbenefit two vital scoring shots – the ‘lag’ putt and basicchip shot. Both of these strokes require a natural flow-ing action to make a consistently solid strike on the ball,and working on them alternately can benefit both.So, around the practice green, Rory might take half-

a-dozen balls and roll some putts from the fringe to ahole cut 20 paces away, the emphasis on finding a flowand a rhythm that enables him to roll each of the balls aperfect distance. With his regular putting grip, he staysrelaxed and lets his arms flow with the motion of hisbody to accelerate the putter smoothly through the ball.

Then, having stroked those six putts he switches toa chipping club – in this case a 7-iron – and simply triesto recreate that same flowing rhythm with a greensidechipping action. As I explain to Rory, the drill needs tobe instinctive and natural; the secret is not to thinkabout the club in your hands but instead focus on visu-alising the shot you want to play and react to what yousee as you create a repeating motion.

Doing this has made a big difference to the qualityof Rory’s pace control on these shots over the last 12months. It is all about visualising the ball’s journey onthe green and working between clubs to be moreinstinctive and reactive. Weighing up shots of between10 and 30 paces, alternate between your chippingclubs, 7-iron to wedge – and of course your putter.

You really can sense thelightness in the hands asRory grips his putter with thestandard reverse-overlapgrip, and prepares to strokea long putt. The quality isevident in the rhythm of thestroke as he ‘flows’ the put-ter back and through for anaccelerating stroke and solidcontact with the ball – quali-ties he applies equally to thebasic chipping method

Page 7: Golf Instruction - Golf International Magazine

Through the first part of this lesson the emphasiswas on the importance of using a mirror to confirmall aspects of alignment with a view to repeating aperfectly square impact position and rolling the ballon your intended starting line. That’s all you canever hope to do with every putt you face and themore often you repeat the sort of routines you haveseen Rory work on here the more often you willtake that level of precision out on to the golfcourse...and hole more makeable putts. Fromlonger range, improving your sense of flow as youswing the putter back and forth will help you tostrike lag putts more solidly – key to distance con-trol. And that same quality is vital in the chip andrun shot, too, as you look to land the ball a specificdistance and have it roll across the green just like aputt. So do what Rory does, and work on the skillsthat are directly related to shooting lower scores.

With the lower body stable,the chipping action shareswith the putting stroke thiswonderful ‘togetherness’ ofthe arms and the upperbody working in unison