What are the best players in the world doing this week to sharpen their game? Jack Backhouse comments on different training aids spotted already this week at The Open Championship at Royal Liverpool.
The best players in the world are always looking for ways to sharpen and improve their games, and using training aids is a brilliant way to accelerate developing feels. So what training aids are tour players using at The Open Championship this year?
Putting Aids
Scotty Scheffler is having one of the best ball-striking seasons of all time, and despite already winning $19,000,000 on the PGA tour, he could have won more had his putting been better. We’ve spotted him this week on the putting green at Royal Liverpool with Visio putting training aids, a mirror and putting mat.
The purpose of the mirror is to get his eye/forearm/shoulder alignment all square and this gives him the best chance of starting the golf ball on line. The putting mat and start line gate aid are designed to train him to get the club face back to square, with the idea that a good stroke hits the ball through the gate, giving him instant feedback if he makes a bad stroke.
You can buy a Visio putting mat HERE and a mirror HERE
Putting Grip On a Driver
Matt Fitzpatrick has been coached by Mike Walker, one of Pete Cowen’s disciples for his whole golfing life, and this is one of their favourites. Seen at many Peter Cowan driving ranges, a putter grip on a normal club is one of their go-to golf swing drills and golf training aids.
You can buy this two-thumb putter grip to put on a golf club HERE
This training aid is brilliant for golfers as it helps set the wrists correctly on the right swing plane and also helps train clubface awareness in the downswing. Rory McIlroy was seen doing this drill during his brief spell working with Pete Cowen in 2022. Fitzpatrick might see that driving accuracy is a premium this week at Hoylake, so is working on keeping the face in a more correct position at impact.
The ProSENDR
This training aid has kicked up a lot of fuss on social media in the last couple of months since its release. A brainchild of legendary swing coach Sean Foley and David Woods, the ProSENDR has many uses and has been seen all over driving ranges on tour used by top players.
This swing trainer has quite a few uses; swing speed training, managing wrist angles, or drilling the short game like Phil Mickelson has been seen doing this week. The training system features a compression ball that sticks between the wrists via velcro (so it’s not a pain to pick up when it falls out), which helps keep the wrists working properly. This is essential for chipping and pitching off of firm, tight lies.
GC Quad
Launch monitors are just a normal part of day-to-day life on tour now, with pretty much everyone either having one or using one regularly. Players use them on the golf course to know how far shots into elevated greens play or how far the ball goes in a new temperature or altitude compared to their normal climate. This may seem a lot like overkill or like losing some of the skill and art of the game, but everyone is looking for that extra 1% over the field and using a GC quad might just be that difference.
Have you seen some other training aids at The Open Championship this week? Let me know with a tweet.
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What’s In My Bag?
- Driver: TaylorMade Stealth 2 HD
- 3 Wood: Callaway Paradym fairway wood
- Irons: Takomo 301mb
- Wedges: Callaway Jaws Raw wedge
- Putter: EVNROLL EV 5.2 Putter
Jack Backhouse
