Better Golf Academy: Strategy to Awesome Golf

Two weeks ago I ended up in an ambulance with a hundred percent blocked artery, and it's the real reason I'm finally telling this story. Episode one of a five-part series turns the mic on myself, why college golf never became a real option growing up, using Tony Finau's immigrant, garage-built beginning as the mirror, and why I decided not to sit on any of this any longer.

Imagine finishing eighteen holes with your hands feeling just as calm and soft on the last tee as they did on the first. That's not a fantasy, it's an actual trainable skill. This is the finale of the Golf Grip Pressure Series, and I'm handing you four real drills, no golf club required for the first one, to actually build soft hands permanently, plus the bigger idea tying the whole series together: most swing problems are secretly tension problems.

Ever make a smooth backswing and then completely lose it on the way down for no reason you can point to? There's a real, physical reason, and it's not your swing plane. Episode four of the Golf Grip Pressure Series gets into how grip pressure actually spikes at the top of your backswing without you noticing, why that spike is the real cause behind casting and early release, and a simple pause drill that lets you feel it coming before it costs you a shot.

Back in episode one, I promised we'd actually settle the lead-hand-versus-trail-hand debate that got this series made. It turns out real data on tour pros flips a piece of popular advice most golfers have heard. Episode three of the Golf Grip Pressure Series resolves the hand dominance question using real motion-capture research, keeps the Fred Couples soft-grip story, and gives you the actual thing to check for on your next chip or putt instead of picking a side.

I just finished watching Josh Hill sink a three-foot putt to win the Walker Cup for Great Britain and Ireland, and while everyone else was watching the moment, I was watching his hands. Episode two of the Golf Grip Pressure Series uses that putt as the case study for Sian Beilock's research on why skilled performers choke, Debbie Crews' work measuring grip tension directly on golfers, and the one-word cue that can interrupt the spiral before you even start your stroke.