Rory McIlroy is without doubt one of the greatest Driver’s of the golf ball in recent years and has constantly used this to his advantage to bring golf courses to their knees. When we look at Rory’s build he would not be your traditional long levered powerhouse like Dustin Johnson or Brooks Koepka, but Rory uses the speed and power he has extremely efficiently, and maximizes his ball speed and distance as a result. Although there are very few people in the world with Rory’s strength and flexibility, there are a couple of things you can focus on to help you be more more efficient and gain those extra few yards.
SET UP
As we look at Rory’s set up its clear to see how he is approaching this shot. If we look at his spine we can see a nice rightward tilt at address, almost directing his shoulders and hips skyward in doing so. This will play a large role in allowing Rory to hit up on the golf ball through impact and which will allow him to gain those extra few yards. Trackman have identified a positive (upward) angle of attack as a key element in achieving extra distance with the driver. Looking at Rory’s Trackman Data we can see that he generally hitting two degrees up on the golf ball through impact.
CLOSE THE GAP
One of Rory’s best Attributes is how he loads up his right side in the backswing, and also how he sequences the downswing from that position. As we look at the Images below of Rory you will notice on the left hand side Rory has moved nicely behind his ball, loading most of his weight into his right leg. From this position Rory can drive his lower body towards the ball to begin the downswing sequence. By doing this Rory is generating a significant amount of power from the ground transferring it upwards through each section of his body. You will notice that Rory’s left hip bumps towards the ball to close the gap on the perpendicular line we have drawn beside his left foot at address.
DONT GET AHEAD OF YOURSELF
As we look at Rory post impact below, you will see his left leg has squared up to the line as we previously mentioned, and he also has a huge amount of extension and width in his arms post impact. One other thing to note is his head has remained slightly behind its original address position. While I wouldn’t recommend trying to copy this exact position, I definitely would agree with the sensation of allowing the club unwind around your body, as opposed to what we would commonly see with a lot of amateurs which is the head moving towards the line almost immediately from the top of the backswing. We often see this movement with people who slice the ball, as the head begins to move towards the ball we will often see the the club move over the top of the plane line, resulting in an out to in path and more most people a significant loss in distance.
