10 Sean Crocker

The big-hitting American, who’s just starting to find his feet on the European Tour, shares some of his favourite tips and drills

1

Greenside chips

Take a light grip. If you lift the club up, someone should be able to take it out of your hands – so try that. The moment you start strangling the grip, that’s when you start getting quick. Let the club just sit in your hands so it feels nice and lazy.

2 Increasing power

I’ve been lucky with speed and strength. I’d say the harder you swing on the range, the more that’s going to let your body loosen up. When you’re warming up, go as full-on as possible for a few to get those fasttwitch muscles going.

3 Reading greens

You’ve got to understand that if you’re picking a line, the speed has to match it. Make a note of where you’re missing it and focus on that, so you improve that understanding of pace and line. You can be a great green reader, but that’s no good if your speed is always off.

4 Beating a slice

This would be down to alignment issues – being all crooked. If you get yourself to be in more of a neutral position, it’s going to allow that club path to get more neutral and stop you coming over the top. Even if you’re not that much of an athlete, your body’s going to think, “I’ve I’ve got to do this to get the ball on line” and that’s how you create a slice.

5

Better ball-striking

I can lose a bit of width and I also get a bit too far forward, so sometimes I put a tennis ball under my left foot to stop me from doing that. I also carry a big wooden stick with me. I do this one-handed swing so I feel like my width stays out there. I always hit balls right-handed, too, just to make sure my right arm doesn’t pinch up against my body.

6 Course management

It’s about picking the correct lines off the tee, knowing your distances and choosing the right clubs. So, if you do hit your driver, you better not run through the fairway. It’s mainly about lines and distances to keep you out of trouble.

7 Bunker play

When you’re hitting bunker shots, take a draw stance. You want to feel like the clubface is going all the way up and then flicking around. Amateurs tend to slice across it and the ball spins right. You almost want to shut your stance and feel like you’re hitting a draw – which makes this my hardest tip!

8 Holing out

Put four tees around the hole – two at five feet, one at ten and one at 15. You get one ball at the five footers and you’ve got to make those to move to the ten footer. Then you get two balls at the ten footer and you just have to make one – if you miss both, restart at five. Then you get three balls at the 15 footer and you have to make one of them. If you miss all three, you start again.

9 More wedge spin

I’d say you need a really good wedge and a really good ball, and then it’s dependent on the lie. Focus on letting the club pass your hands, which is going to let the speed go to the clubhead.

10 Practice

I’m working on something every time I’m on the range. Practice should be about the basics: hitting with an alignment stick, checking your set-up, your posture, your aim, and then whatever someone’s given you to work on. That should be your routine.

1

Set-up wise, Macintyre is very well balanced and neutral at address – it all looks solid. From down the line, he appears to be aiming at the right side of the fairway, with his lower body open a touch and his shoulders fairly closed.

2

As he moves into the takeaway, his left elbow doesn’t really stay with the turn – his left side is working quite high. He gets the club a little bit outside and the shaft plane gets relatively steep. From side on, you can see the weight moving on to his left side.

3

Although the left side does go quite high in the takeaway, by the time he gets to the top he’s neutral again and everything is well balanced. This is a classic position. There’s a large amount of rotation and it all looks very natural and powerful.

4

His shaft plane is now right back on track and there’s a lot of drive with the lower body. He’s slightly open and he’s going to hit it strongly from the inside on the way up through impact. He also gets high on his left heel, almost Tiger-esque.

5

It looks like he gets caught underneath it a bit here – he’s almost tilted his left shoulder underneath his chin. I wouldn’t say it’s the ideal post-impact position, but the ball is well on its way and he’s particularly well balanced into his finish.

6

This is textbook. He’s turned through the ball beautifully and he’s well past square. He’s clearly got great mobility in the backswing and the finish. I like to say the length of his ‘runway’ is full and he can generate a lot of speed from that.