One of the most coveted shots in golf is a draw (the shot that curves slightly left for right-handers). You can learn to hit this shot if you focus on your feet.
As you reach the top of the swing, you want to have roughly two-thirds of your body weight supported by your foot farthest from the target. And of that two-thirds, you should feel most of it in the heel. At the same time, the remaining weight should be felt a little more in the toes of your front foot than the heel. Remember: front-foot toes, back-foot heel.
Now here comes the interesting part: in research [above] taken from biomechanist J.J. Rivet, draw players maintain this toes-heel relationship at the start the downswing. Like all good players, two-thirds of their total body weight shifts into the foot closest to the target, but you can see that the brunt of it is towards the toes. And the back-foot heel is still supporting a fair amount of weight, too.
This might seem odd if you’ve been told to get off the heel of your back foot in the downswing and pivot around your front foot’s heel. But that should happen later in the through-swing. Starting down, the toes-heel relationship is crucial for an in-to-out swing path.
So long as the club is closed to that path at impact, the ball will draw.
– with Ron Kaspriske
• David Leadbetter is a Golf Digest Teaching Professional
THE DRAW DRILL
If you stand on an alignment rod when you practise [above], you’ll get instant feedback on which part of your foot is supporting most of your weight. Rehearse swings on the rod where you feel the toes-heel relationship.
