Rory McIlroy always keeps this training aid with him. Here’s why

Welcome to Play Smart, a regular GOLF.com game-improvement column that will help you become a smarter, better golfer.

Training aids can be incredibly useful tools for improving your swing. Heck, even the pros use them. Go to any range at a PGA Tour event and you’ll see all sorts of gadgets in players’ hands.

The key for you, dear reader, is finding the right training aid. There are all sorts of pieces of equipment that claim they will fix your swing. But if you’re not using something that’s attacking the right problems, your work will be for naught.

That’s why you’ll often see pros using different training aids at different times throughout their careers. One year they might be grooving their swing with one tool, and the next it’ll be completely different. Golf swings will change over time, so it’s important you understand how best to keep yours in a solid spot.

Sometimes when you’re in the midst of fixing something in your swing it’s all you can think about. Every time you walk past a mirror, you’ll find yourself rehearsing your golf swing. Pros get like that, too, and in the case of Rory McIlroy, he’s found a clever way to make sure he’s always got a club with him to work on his swing.

Rory’s tiny club

As you can see in the clip above, McIlroy is swinging a tiny club on the range at this week’s DP World Tour event. No, it isn’t a radical new club that he’s putting in the bag, but rather a handy training aid he can use just about anywhere.

“It’s a little club I can carry with me everywhere,” McIlroy says. “Bring it back to the hotel room with me, swing it in the house just any time I wanna get a feel with it.”

Being portable isn’t the only use for the tiny club, though. The grip on it is molded (much like the one Scottie Scheffler uses every day), which helps him reinforce good habits when holding the club.

“It helps sometimes because my left-hand grip gets a little strong at times,” he says.

Finally, with a heavy swing weight in the head, McIlroy can better feel where the clubhead is when he’s swinging it — whether it be on the range or in the house — which is a huge asset when trying to groove a new feel at the top of the backswing.

“I’ve used it since basically October when I was trying to make a little bit of a change in my backswing,” he says. “It sorta comes with me everywhere.”

While it’s unclear what the exact name of the training aid is — or if it’s something McIlroy built himself — you can find similar aids online. You can browse Fairway Jockey training aids here.