POWER UP YOUR GAME!

Golf Monthly Top 50 Coach Keith Wood suggests five potential areas to investigate in your quest for a more powerful swing

- Keith Wood

Top-level golf has certainly become much more of a power game than in years gone by. While the typical club golfer may not be able to compete with the tour pros when it comes to power, a little more of it never did any golfer any harm. The further you can get your golf ball down a hole, or the shorter club you're hitting into par 3s, the more chance you have of scoring better if the other areas of your game are also in good shape.

Yes, certain elements in the quest for power may require more effort and dedication than you are prepared or willing to commit to, but there are other, more easily achievable routes to greater power, such as simple changes to your posture, tee height or grip. Every golfer craves more power, whether openly or secretly, and over the next four pages you could find something that helps deliver it for you...

1. The basics

The first thing is to question yourself and be honest about the power fundamentals such as turn, leg action and shot shape. Are you turning or rotating sufficiently and, if not, is there another 5-10° of turn that could be had (main photo)? That's huge for power as it relates to weight transfer and torque. In fact, if you want to achieve more power, the first thing I would ask is what are you not achieving now that could potentially be improved instantly?

Turning would be near the top of that list for many. Are you fulfilling your torso turn, which will fulfil your hip turn, which will fulfil your weight transfer? The next question would be, is your leg action strong enough; are your legs doing what they should be doing? And what about swing direction and shot shape?