The post Warming Up with Jordan Spieth: Swing thoughts, ‘go get that’ story and much more appeared first on Golf.

The post Warming Up with Jordan Spieth: Swing thoughts, ‘go get that’ story and much more appeared first on Golf.

In December, GOLF senior writer Dylan Dethier joined three-time major winner Jordan Spieth on the range at the Hero World Challenge for an episode of “Warming Up,” which you can watch here.

This interview, which was condensed for clarity, was originally published in the February 2026 issue of GOLF Magazine.

Dylan Dethier: Have you always had the same pre-round routine?

Jordan Spieth: I actually learned mine from when I played some Tour events when I was in high school. It was quite simply: What do these guys do before they play? Because I didn’t go to the gym when I was 16, I didn’t warm up, I just hit whatever I wanted to. So it was just watching guys deliberately have intention even in their warm-ups versus just kind of getting loose. I work my way up the bag and then there’s some shots that you might need on certain holes out there, like I’ll know the yardage on the par 3s and make sure I hit those clubs. Y’know how your second ball is amazing? I just try to make sure that my second ball is the one I hit out on the course on that par 3.

DD: You’ve been recovering from a wrist injury. As you’re working on your swing, are you chasing any former version of your golf swing or are you just tackling what’s in front of you at the moment?

JS: So, we call those our templates. I have templates from different time periods, and it’s a really good question because it goes into a lot of what I’ve done the last few months. I don’t want to step into an exact swing I made seven years ago, because my body’s changed. I can do some things better now that I couldn’t do then, and I could do a lot of things that were really good then. That was probably my best ball-striking year: 2017. I had good striking in 2013, ’14, ’15 as well. What I’m trying to do is gather, like, What is my DNA? What do I do in my swing that is consistent throughout all these good time periods? Whether the shaft is pitched in a different place or the depth of my hands is a little bit different here or there, what is a similar movement that I haven’t been doing that I want to get back to? And that’s what this offseason was about.

To answer your question about certain time periods, I have a similar hand path to 2017, with a little bit more of the pitch that I had my first few years on Tour. It’s been a lot of work and some deliberate work, but it’s been really fun because I feel like I’m getting back to some of the missing pieces of my DNA that I hadn’t been able to hit in a while, a lot of it having to do with my left wrist that now I have no restrictions on.

DD: This may be kind of a stupid question, but, like, if you turn your brain off completely and just swing the golf club, what happens?

JS: It’d be horrendous. Because if you said, don’t think and just swing, I’ve never actually played like that. I’ve always had a manipulating feel through my backswing — just in the backswing — and then from there it’s “Be an athlete and hit the shot.” But if I think about nothing, I get all sorts of messed up.

DD: What’s a big difference in the golf you guys play on Tour versus what amateurs are playing at home?

JS: Some of it is the pins, but also some of these courses are so hard. On those harder courses you’ll see such a difference in score. At Muirfield Village guys can shoot six-, seven-under rounds, but you’ll see guys shoot 79, and you’ll never see that anywhere else, just because you’re even more penalized on your misses. But, for the most part, guys are missing in the fat part of the green, they’re not making a ton of bogeys, they’re taking advantage of par 5s and some of the wedge holes. Most every golf course we play we’ll sit there and say, okay, there’s eight birdie chances today. You might steal one somewhere else, but there’s eight that I’m looking at where I’m going to be more aggressive, and the others you want to be in the fat part of the green, you make par, maybe you make a long putt. That’s where the separation is. When we play games at home — I play with Scottie [Scheffler] quite a bit [in Dallas] and we play with guys that are anywhere from a plus-two to a two handicap, and the separation isn’t what it would be if we were playing out on Tour just strictly because of pin locations.

DD: Who are these guys that you find to play with at home?

JS: [Laughing] Some of them you don’t ask what they do, some of them I find out what they do later. But we’ve got a good group of guys. It’s fun. And it’s awesome because you play these games and, obviously, if you’re playing with Scottie, you’ve got a pretty good gauge on where you are compared to everyone else. So that’s helpful.

DD: What was the 2025 season like? You had a bunch of strong results — four top 10s and seven top 20s in 18 starts — but also you were frustrated by a couple of missed opportunities late in the season.

JS: After I had [wrist] surgery [in August 2024], I wasn’t really able to go full until almost January 1 [2025]. So I played a couple rounds in December, but it’s not like I had an offseason to work on things. Most of what I was working on was through the season last year. I was 25 percent of the way there, and then I felt like I got another 70 percent there by the time the season ended. But that final 5 percent is just tournament play, taking it to the course, the consistency level of it. The way I started to think about it was like it was smoking meats. Say it’s chicken: It can get up to 155 degrees really quickly, but that last 10 degrees takes, like, the same amount of time it took to get all the way up there. That’s a weird analogy, but it’s been fun to work on because once the feel and the performance matches, I know great things are coming. And it’s been a long time since I’ve been able to position the club this way. I’m not doing it every time, but I’m doing it some, and I’ll do it more and more as I continue to work on the right things.

DD: What’s the best golf shot you’ve ever hit?

JS: I hit my 6-iron at the [2017] Open Championship at Birkdale [on the par-3 14th] after the conundrum on the previ- ous hole. [On 13, Spieth took a clever drop into the driving range and wound up getting up-and-down for bogey.] I stepped up and just hit a dead-straight rocket that almost went in and kind of took back control of the championship. I think that was probably the best shot — it was a hold 6-iron, just a little wind off the right, just starting to rain a little, and I just lined up right at the pin. And it came off and I was like, Oh, that’s not short, that’s not long, that’s not left, that’s not right — it’s gotta be good. It went to about three and a half feet, and then I went on a run from there.

DD: That was special. And that entire back nine was the site of some all-time moments between you and your longtime caddie Michael Greller. How aware are you of those moments, of that dynamic and how fascinating it is to watch on TV?

JS: I mean, a lot of those moments come about without trying. Some of the most fun ones have been totally random. The one at that [2017] Open — the long putt [for eagle at No. 15] where I said “Go get that.” That [happened] because in the gym that week they were showing a lot of old Open Championships, and back in the ’70s these guys never got their balls out of the hole. They’d make a putt, their caddies would pull the pin out just in time for it to go in, and then they would pick it out of the hole. So that was in my head, in my subconscious. Also, the [next] tee was, like, 50 feet in the other way. I would have been going out of my way to go get [the ball]. That’s how “Go get that” happened.

DD: I didn’t realize it was a throwback move!

JS: It was a throwback move.

DD: What’s it like having set such a high standard at a young age, and always comparing yourself to past versions of yourself?

JS: It can be challenging. Like, I wouldn’t wish a couple years of the last five or 10 on people. Living in problem-solving mode, trying to figure out how to be — whatever. And knowing a lot of it is your mechanics is even more frustrating, because it’s not like everything’s fine and you know it’s just coming. But, at the same time, knowing that once I get the club positioned, the way my DNA is, the way I want it to — the good things are right around the corner. Golf’s funny, right? I’m 32, so I could play at a very high level for another 10 years, and that’s a long time. That’s a full career for almost any other sport. So I can kind of forgive the past. I can be pumped about what I’ve done. I can forgive the times that were hard and just be forward-focused with some scar tissue that can help. So, as long as I stay in that mindset, I do believe that good things are coming.

DD: What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever gotten?

JS: I don’t even know if it’s advice I’ve gotten, but something I’ve used is what I picked up from the show Ted Lasso: “Be a goldfish.” Have a short memory. I think it’s so important in our sport and, really, in everything. You set these standards and reset, and then from the position I’m in, it’s just a really good thing to constantly think about: Be a goldfish.

DD: Thanks, Jordan.

JS: Absolutely.

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The post 2 questions I wish I’d asked Chris Gotterup — plus 5 I actually did appeared first on Golf.

The post 2 questions I wish I’d asked Chris Gotterup — plus 5 I actually did appeared first on Golf.

One of the coolest things about my (I use the following word loosely) job is getting access to excellence. Interviewing top golfers means I get to see and hear firsthand how the very best in the world operate. That is a very cool thing. Interesting, inspiring, instructive. Were I more talented and more disciplined I might even be able to put these lessons into practice and really make something of myself. At the very least I’ll settle for a little enrichment via osmosis.

The only downside is that when I listen back to what were very cool conversations I have to hear myself talk, too. Re-watching this latest episode of “Warming Up,” for instance, I don’t just get the thoughtful Jersey wisdom of four-time (and twice this year!) PGA Tour winner Chris Gotterup — I get to second-guess my own contributions, too, and rue each missed opportunity.

Where did I whiff with Gotterup? Here’s a start: one of the most notable things about his approach is the fact that he doesn’t strap his glove; it flaps like an unfurled sail. But I never brought it up, never teed him up for storytime, even as that piece of loose velcro waved in my face.

This is no crime of humanity — I wouldn’t have been the first to ask about it, nor the last — but in this setting? With glove in hand and club in hand, and the opportunity to provide and demonstrate context with his explanation? What a miss!

I hold myself slightly less to blame for the second question I wish I’d asked: Why do you get so emotional after your wins? Don’t get me wrong, I would cry like a baby if I made it into a PGA Tour field, never mind made a cut. But Gotterup has won at every level and is not, on the surface, a particularly emotive guy; our conversation slipped more than once into laid-back, low-key monotone. What is it about the post-win moments with Amanda Balionis that bring on the waterworks?

Alas, this was a delayed-release episode, filmed just before Gotterup notched either of his 2026 victories. (To the many high-profile PGA Tour pros reading this: If you come on ‘Warming Up’ you, too, will immediately win multiple events.) So I’ll give myself a break there; we’ll save that question for next time.

But enough about what we didn’t get. There’s much more we did. Below are five lessons I managed to slip out of Gotterup — and I hope you’ll watch the full thing to get a better sense of how Gotterup gets it done.

1. He doesn’t worry what his swing looks like.

We may be in an era of style over substance — in life, not just golf — but Gotterup doesn’t have time to worry about his golf swing’s aesthetic. He’s too busy making sure it actually works.

“I heavily rely on feel and like, I’m not very technical,” he said. “I’m not worried about what my swing looks like, I just want to know: Does the club feel good in my hands? And can I make the ball go left to right? Can I go right to left? Can I hit my numbers? Because at the end of the day, once you get out on the course you’re just trying to put the ball where you want it to go and I don’t need to be thinking about where my club head is in my swing on hole 7 in a tournament. So for me, it’s about what I can do to create consistency and feel good about it. Am I getting results with the numbers that I want? Especially pre-tournament and during a tournament, that’s all that matters for me.”

If you’re an Adam Scott imitator or you’re continually typing “tiger woods 2000 golf swing” into YouTube, I’m not here to pass judgment. That’s art. But Gotterup remembers that his swing is means to an end. What makes us different makes it great. If it works, it doesn’t matter how it looks. And his works very, very well.

2. He’ll check ball speed to make sure everything’s okay.

Mostly when Gotterup uses his launch monitor it’s to check out carry distances. But there’s another number he uses as a gauge to see how his entire body is working. This was interesting:

“I’ll look at ball speed too … with driver, because I can kind of tell if my body’s in a good spot,” Gotterup said. “Obviously if it’s cold, it’s different, but if I’m on the lower side, I probably need to go see someone trainer-wise and be like, something’s not [right], or I need to like go to the gym and do something to kind of get back into it. But most of that comes if I’ve played four or five tournaments in a row — that’s kind of where it like starts to fall off.”

3. Winning is exhausting.

Okay, this one may not be particularly relatable. But it is interesting. Gotterup is something of an expert on what it’s like to win PGA Tour events now, and one thing he’s learned is that all those good times take a toll.

“Yeah, it elevates the experience, but it also drains the body more,” he said. “Oh my god, yeah. I didn’t sleep after I won, and not because I was out partying or doing anything. I couldn’t go to sleep. And then you get up at 5 [a.m.] the next day to go travel to Northern Ireland and then you’ve got to get ready for a major. I think it’s a balance of like, living the highs and then like … alright, that’s gone, I’ve got to get ready for next week.”

When Gotterup first won, in Myrtle Beach, it was the week before the PGA Championship. When he won next, at the Genesis Scottish Open, it was right before the Open Championship. He adapted his prep accordingly.

“I’m not gonna sit here and complain like I had a bad time [laughing] but when I won my first year I got into the PGA the next week and I was like whoa, I’ve got to get ready for the PGA and like, practice super hard, and I wore myself out by the time Thursday came around. And so [after the Scottish] I was like, I’m gonna take the opposite approach. I’m going to do nothing on Monday, ease my way into the week … try to learn from past experiences and be able to take that into into each week.”

It certainly worked that week; Gotterup finished third at Royal Portrush.

4. You can learn a lot by caddying — but more from data.

Gotterup used to caddie; he speaks of it fondly. But he also had an important learning, which is that players lie, but launch monitors don’t.

How far does his 8-iron go?

“I’m probably in the 165-70 range here this week,” he said. “But usually, you know, middle of the summer, 100 degrees, it’s probably 180, give or take. So that’s why I use [a launch monitor], because it’s helpful with knowing like, where I’m at for the week. And it doesn’t lie. It’s not like when I was caddying or whatever as a kid, some guy would say, oh, I hit my 8-iron 170. It’s like, no, you probably you probably hit it 145.”

There are two reminders in that: No. 1, find out how far your clubs go. No. 2, if your 8-iron goes 145, you’re probably doing pretty well. Gotterup smashes it, and you’re only 20 yards behind him? Not bad.

5. It’s all a mysterious equation.

Okay, it isn’t all mysterious. Talent and hard work are a pretty powerful combination. But for the world’s best players, figuring out when to push harder vs. taking a deep breath is an inexact science.

“There’s plenty of times where it’s like, I don’t know if hitting balls is going to help me today,” he said. “It’s like, yeah, if you have a bad round or whatever it might be better just to go get a dinner and get out of there instead of trying to figure it all out.”

So how to decide? He shrugged.

“No one really knows the answer, you kind of just guess and hope you’re right.”

You can watch the complete Warming Up interview with Gotterup below, or on YouTube here. 

Dylan Dethier welcomes your comments at dylan_dethier@neatly-delicate-grub.edgecompute.app.

The post 2 questions I wish I’d asked Chris Gotterup — plus 5 I actually did appeared first on Golf.

The post Jordan Spieth taught me 10 lessons in 45 minutes. Here they are appeared first on Golf.

The post Jordan Spieth taught me 10 lessons in 45 minutes. Here they are appeared first on Golf.

About halfway through a brain-bending 45-minute range session with Jordan Spieth, I ask what might be a very dumb question.

“If you could turn your brain completely off and just swing the golf club, what would happen?”

Spieth doesn’t hesitate, which suggests he’s thought plenty about this before. That’s always a safe assumption with Spieth, who may have the most active mind in professional golf: he’s thought plenty about this before.

“It’d be horrendous,” he says. “If you said ‘don’t think and just swing’ — I’ve never actually played like that. I’ve always had a manipulating feel through my backswing.”

Spieth explains that he needs to have something to focus on as he takes the club away or things go awry.

“Out of a level of 10 difficulty going back, I always like it to be somewhere like a four or five for what to think about. And that normally sets the timing up. That’s just in the backswing; from there it’s be an athlete and hit the shot. But if I think about nothing, I get all sorts of messed up.”

We’ve been filming “Warming Up” episodes for two years now, and it’s been arguably the coolest thing I’ve gotten to do in this job — a lineup of bucket-list interviews and pinch-me moments. But I’ve stayed greedy, too, keeping Spieth’s name atop my wish-list from Day 1.

At last, this winter, through a happy combination of persistence, acquiescence and scheduling, we landed the big fish: Spieth agreed to spend some time with us on a driving range of his choosing — and to open up a window into his beautiful golfing mind.

You can watch the full episode below or on YouTube here. But if you’re in reading mode, below you’ll find 10 lessons — about his game, golf in general or life in general — that’ll stick with me.

10 lessons from Jordan Spieth

1. Be an athlete and an artist.

Mess around, Spieth says, especially as you begin your warmup. He grabs a 60-degree wedge and starts with some quarter- and half-swing wedge shots, hitting his first balls only 20 yards or so, working his way up a few yards at a time.

What’s important to finding his feel is varying the types of shots he’s hitting, even at short range.

“They’re not all the same shot,” he says. “I’ll work some different heights and then when I get to about 60 yards I’ll start hitting three trajectories at 60 yards.”

In the meantime he messes around with opening the face, creating spin, hitting one shot he’ll hope will hit and stop and another he hopes will run out more. He’s using different planes of motion, he says, to try out different shots.

“I’m just kind of being an athlete, being an artist with the wedge, and then as you get more into full shots, you’ve maybe got a little bit better club-face control than if you just started doing it from the get-go.”

2. Have intention.

When Spieth first played on the PGA Tour he was a high-school phenom with no real warm-up routine. One of the things he learned watching the pros? Do everything with intention.

“I didn’t go to the gym when I was 16 before [the round], no warm-up, and I’d just kind of hit whatever I wanted to [on the range],” he says. That was the difference. “To watch guys actually deliberately have intention even in their warmups versus just kind of getting loose.”

3. Practice real shots from the course.

“There’s some shots that you might need on certain holes out there,” Spieth says. Because it’s golf, you don’t know exactly what shots you’ll face when you get out on the course. But you do know a few of ’em: “The par-3s, I’ll ask that yardage and I’ll make sure I hit that club. You always say you’re ‘second-team All-American;’ [when you hit two balls] that second ball’s amazing. Well, I’ll just make sure that my second ball is the first ball that I hit out on that par-3. So you’re trying to hit the shot, you see it, you feel it, you know it’s good.”

4. Work the ball towards the hole (at your own risk)

Spieth grew up playing a draw but now hits majority fades. Still, when he’s playing his best he likes to be able to move it both ways so that he can take on every hole location — especially given the PGA Tour likes to tuck them in corners.

“They just have these pins where it’s like, if you play a fade, you sometimes just can’t get it close. It’ll be spinning with the hill on a left pin and you just can’t get it close. And that’s probably okay, but it’s a pet peeve of mine. It bugs me that it’s not going to be working towards the hole. So I always want to be able to hit the draw.”

But there is a protective measure Spieth takes to make sure he’s not getting too risky as he takes on every pin.

“Every time I’m hitting a draw or a fade, I’m training myself that that ball cannot over-curve,” he says. “If it under-curves, I’m in the fat part of the green. If it over-curves, I’m short-sided.”

Under-curving, then, is the goal.

5. Appreciate your 7-iron — it’s the best club.

I liked that Spieth was able to go full golf-nerd — talking planes of motion, degrees of rotation, swing DNA, etc. — while also making the simplest statement of them all: he likes the way 7-iron looks the most.

“I’m holding 7-iron. I love my 7-iron,” he says. “It’s like, my favorite iron to look at. It’s the perfect rectangle. It just has that look to me.”

For those curious, Spieth generally hits 7-iron anywhere from 175 to 190 yards, depending on the conditions — though at the Open Championship all rules go out the window and he may hit 7 from 150. As for when to hit 7 vs. 6? That depends not just on yardage to the hole but pin position, too; if he has to stop the ball quickly he’d rather step on a 7-iron than try to hit a baby 6. Also, again, it looks the best.

READ: Here’s what Ludvig Åberg taught me in a half-hour on the range

6. Remember: Golf can work in opposites.

Explaining his current feel, Spieth hits on something interesting:

“A lot of times the game works in opposites,” he says. “You’ve gotta feel right to go left, y’know? Like, whenever someone’s slicing it, [tell them] to swing to the right. They’re like, ‘no way, it’s gonna go further right,’ but they square it up.”

I wonder if Spieth dishes out anti-slice advice every pro-am hole he plays. He says he’ll wait until prompted.

“I try to wait until someone asks because I don’t really want them giving me advice unless I were to ask,” he says. Wait — Jordan Spieth is getting advice?! “Between pro-ams and mail and everything, I promise I’ve had all kinds of advice. I don’t see or hear it all, but yeah.”

7. Making a swing change? Stress-test it.

As Spieth has chased a complex hybrid of his past and present golf swings (the backswing depth of his 2017 self, the hand path of his younger self, the gym routine of his current self, etc.) he has tried to work in that new swing first in a controlled range setting and gradually gotten it ready for competition.

“I’ve moved from hitting most of the shots in a hitting bay on video the first eight weeks to checkpoints in the hitting bay and then outside … and then do performance,” he says. Performance means setting up a combine for himself, stress-testing specific shots on command, three-quarters shots, different feels and shapes in different conditions.

“It had to be swing-focused for a little while … and while it requires a little more focus than I’d like to play at my best, I’m able to make really good swings on the course, which — it took a while to get to that level.”

8. Find a good measuring stick.

For Spieth, that’s World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler, who happens to live near Spieth and serve as a frequent sparring partner.

“When we play games at home, I play with play with Scottie quite a bit at home and we play with guys that are anywhere from a plus two to a two handicapper, and the separation isn’t what it would be if we were playing out [on Tour] just strictly because of what you’re mentioning, [tucked] pin positions,” he said.

As for playing with Scottie?

“Obviously if you’re playing playing with Scottie, you got a pretty good gauge on where you are compared to everyone else, right? So it’s helpful.”

9. Forgive the past.

This comes in perhaps Spieth’s most profound answer, one I keep thinking more about. What’s it like, I ask, to have set such a high standard at such a young age that he’s constantly compared to his own greatness? Here’s his answer in full:

“It can be very challenging at times,” he says. “Like, I wouldn’t wish a couple years of the last five, ten years on a lot of people. You live in problem-solving mode, trying to figure out how to be, whatever. And to know a lot of it is mechanics is even more frustrating because it’s not like everything’s fine and it’s just coming. It’s like no, I gotta actually—

“But at the same time, knowing that once I get the club position the way, at least the way my DNA is, the way I want it to, then good things are right around the corner. Golf’s funny, right? I’m 32, so I could play at a very high level for another 10 years, and that’s a long time. That’s a full career for most any other sport. So I can forget about — I can forgive the past, I can be pumped about what I’ve done, I can forgive the times that were hard and just be forward-focused with some scar tissue that can help, you know. So as long as I stay in that mindset, I do believe that good things are coming.”

10. Be a goldfish.

I didn’t expect Spieth to quote Ted Lasso, but he says he leans on a mantra from the show: Be a goldfish.

The thing about goldfish is they have 10-second memories. Their pasts don’t dictate their futures. And they have simple, quiet minds.

Spieth is, of course, the anti-goldfish. That’s what makes him such an interesting golfer and thinker. A goldfish wouldn’t comb through golf swings through different points in his career, looking for the best stuff. A goldfish wouldn’t have a swing thought as he stands over the ball. Maybe Spieth knows that he — like most of us — could use a little more goldfish.

My sense leaving the interview? I like Jordan Spieth the way he is.

Dylan Dethier welcomes your comments at dylan_dethier@neatly-delicate-grub.edgecompute.app.

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The post The 2 key fundamentals behind one of golf’s best ball strikers appeared first on Golf.

The post The 2 key fundamentals behind one of golf’s best ball strikers appeared first on Golf.

When thinking of the smoothest swings in the modern generation, a few names immediately come to mind. Ernie Els, Fred Couples, Adam Scott and Justin Rose are all solid nominees, but the list would not be complete without one more: Louis Oosthuizen.

Like the other names on the modern smooth-swinging Mount Rushmore, Oosthuizen is a major champion; he hoisted the Claret Jug at St Andrews in 2010 and routed the field by seven shots. He came close a few other times, too, famously notching a trio of top-three finishes in the 2021 major season.

Since then, the South African has taken his talents to the LIV Golf circuit, and although he’s yet to hoist a trophy on the upstart tour, his swing is still as sweet as ever.

Recently, Oosthuizen joined GOLF‘s own Dylan Dethier on an episode of Warming Up (which you can watch in full below). During their talk, he shared the origins of his smooth swing.

2 fundamentals for a smooth swing

Fundamentals aren’t the most fun things to work on, but they’re the foundation for any good swing. Need some proof? Look no further than Mr. Oosthuizen — and the consistent numbers he stacked up on our Full Swing simulator.

“From Day 1 when I started as a junior I went to a coach and and he was great with setup and posture,” Oosthuizen said. “Those were always the things we worked on and everything was always close to square.”

Solid fundamentals can make up for lots of physical shortcomings. Even if you aren’t the tallest, biggest or strongest player, when you’ve got solid fundamentals, you can generate plenty of power. Moving your body efficiently can go a long way.

“Timing and good technique,” Oosthuizen said when asked about where he gets his power. “At a young age, because I was tiny, I didn’t have any power so I was very loopy, I had a long over-swing, and through the years when I got a little stronger, I could control that. But it’s always been aiming pretty square, just left of target, maybe, and working from an open position. It was never really something I had to do in my swing to try and generate anything. It was always pretty decent timing.”

If you’re struggling to generate power or create solid contact, break it down to the fundamentals. There’s a good chance that by fixing the little things, you’ll put yourself in a much better position to swing it like the pros.

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Brooks Koepka’s return to the PGA Tour marks a new chapter for the five-time major champion, who spent the past three-and-a-half years competing on LIV Golf as captain of Smash GC. Now, through the PGA Tour’s Returning Member Program, he’s set to rejoin the tour where he built most of his legacy.

No stranger to headlines, Koepka has also earned a reputation for his straightforward, no-nonsense approach to nearly everything—including instruction.

As he prepares to tee it up again on familiar turf, let’s revisit one of his best tips, shared on an episode of Warming Up with GOLF’s Dylan Dethier.

The simple reminder Brooks Koepka uses in every range session

If you look at any Tour player, there’s almost always one aspect of their game that remains constant throughout their career: the setup.

It’s the foundation of the swing, and even the smallest deviations can create major inconsistencies. And, on Tour, where millions of dollars are on the line every week, every shot counts. There’s no room for sloppy fundamentals. 

That’s why players like Koepka obsess over the basics. According to him, there’s even a key phrase he repeats during every range session to focus on those core principles.

“It’s really simple: PGA. Posture, grip and alignment,” Koepka says. 

It’s an acronym he learned as a kid from his coach, Warren Bottke, that has since become a key part of his routine—and you can make it part of yours too. 

When using Koepka’s “PGA” reminder in your practice sessions, remember: it’s about making sure the controllable aspects of your swing are dialed in, starting with posture, grip and alignment.

However, “PGA” aren’t the only aspects of the setup worth checking. Koepka points out that ball position is an equally important fundamental.

When something feels off in his game, Koepka says there are many possible causes—but improper ball position has a surprisingly big impact on the quality of a strike. That’s why he’ll have his coach or caddie nearby to help him make sure his ball position is correct every time.

“I might have Claude there [down the line] and Ricky there [face-on],” he says, “You’d be shocked at how often the ball position gets up a ball, or it’s like hey, move it back a ball.”

Sometimes, the simplest fix, he says, is just adjusting the ball to better fit what he’s doing in his swing at that moment.

“It’s bowling, kind of. You want to have the bumpers on and just stay in that lane and I’ll be alright,” Koepka says.

For amateurs, the same principle applies. A simple setup check with alignment rods or string can help you find your “lane” and keep your shots rolling true. After all, if it works on Tour, it can work on your local range too. 

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The post Golf’s smoothest swing: 5 things Louis Oosthuizen taught me in 20 minutes appeared first on Golf.

The post Golf’s smoothest swing: 5 things Louis Oosthuizen taught me in 20 minutes appeared first on Golf.

Golf’s smoothest swinger says there’s one thing that’s changed over the years: He’s getting slower.

“I’m not fussed by that,” the 43-year-old shrugs, tossing a sideways glance at the Full Swing launch monitor giving real-time feedback as he begins his range session.

“When I got on tour you only used launch monitors when you were testing new drivers, really. And I think I used get it to like 116, 117 [miles per hour]. I think I’m now probably 109 or 108,” he says.

“Ball speed, a few years ago I was still in the 170s when I played tournament. I’m now 168, 169, so I can definitely feel I’m slowing down. But with all the technology that you have now, I’m not really losing a lot of distance on my driver. I mean, you’ve got so many shafts that can help you. You can go to a softer shaft…”

It’s only fitting that one of the game’s legendary smooth swingers is unconcerned by chasing speed. He tried that once, he said, and It led to the worst golf of his career. So as we work through the latest episode of Warming Up, he’s content with a simple solution:

“If I hit it shorter, I’ll just take more club.”

Here are five things I learned from Oosthuizen’s legendary move in 20 minutes on the range.

1. He has two simple sources for his power.

Oosthuizen stands just 5’10” and his swing looks effortless — but he has always sent missiles down the fairway. (And our Full Swing data proved he still has plenty of pop, even if it’s not a priority.)

“Timing and good technique,” Oosthuizen says, asked how where he gets his power. “From day one when I started as a junior I went to a coach and and he was great with setup and posture; those was always the things we worked on and everything was always close to square. At a young age, because I was tiny, I didn’t have any power so I was very loopy, I had a long over-swing, and through the years when I got a little stronger, I could control that. But it’s always been aiming pretty square, just left of target, maybe, and working from an open position. It was never really something I had to do in my swing to try and generate anything. It was always pretty decent timing.”

The first of many understatements.

2. He copied Ernie Els — but not on purpose.

There have always been comps between Oosthuizen and fellow South African smooth-swinger Ernie Els. That’s no coincidence; Oosthuizen counts Els among his golfing idols. But whatever swing similarities they have came through osmosis rather than imitation.

[People] made quite a bit of a fuss about [my swing] after winning the Open,” Oosthuizen says, referencing his 2010 triumph at the St. Andrews Open Championship. “Look, Ernie was one of my idols growing up and he was the guy that always looked in rhythm. I mean, there’s not guys with better rhythm than him.”

“I think it’s just something that happened because I watched him,” Oosthuizen concludes.

3. His golf swing was partly a product of his era.

“It wasn’t really a thing to go out and see how long you can hit it,” Oosthuizen says, remembering the technology when he turned pro in the early 2000s. “Because I think that with the drivers at that stage, you could hit it left and right easily. So technology got so good with the driver that now it’s probably the easiest club to eat in your bag, where it didn’t used to be. So, you were more on hitting shots and hitting fairways and never really go out there and just try and hit it as hard and as far as you can.”

So if Oosthuizen had some along later, would his swing have looked different?

“That is interesting,” he says. “I wouldn’t know because watching the guys growing up now hit it today, you probably get taught differently. Like when you’re on the range, you try and hit it, you know. I’ve not seen someone come out of college, a youngster coming through that doesn’t hit a long way. Everyone hits it a long away.

“One kid that was in my academy, Aldrich Potgieter [now a PGA Tour winner and arguably its longest driver] — kid hits it 70 by me, probably.”

4. At his best, he’s not thinking of much.

“Just a little takeaway thought,” he says, demonstrating what he wants to do with about the first eight inches of his swing. He smiles at the idea that the rest of it falls into place from there. “You play your best when you don’t really think of anything, you just set your target and go,” he adds. “And you still want that to be your main focus, but I sort of just do that [move] to just remind me not to pull [the club] inside because when I pull it inside, I roll it.”

It won’t surprise you that Oosthuizen is chasing simplicity.

5. Don’t let the smooth move fool you. He’s competitive as hell.

Oosthuizen says he’s not just competitive on the golf course.

“Everywhere,” he says, with the possible exception of farming — though he brings an undeniable rigor to that side gig, too. “Anything. Any game. Pickleball, tennis…”

At the conclusion of any warmup session, he likes to “talk some crap to these boys, tell them have a nice day,” he says with a grin. That’s because, whatever he may say in self-deprecating fashion about his swing, speed, he’s not short on self-belief.

“I’ve always said I won’t play golf anymore if I feel like I can’t win an event,” he says. “We all have to believe that you can win a tournament. And otherwise, I mean, it’ll drive me insane coming here and just teeing it up for a paycheck. That will drive me crazy. I wouldn’t be able to do it.”

In recent years he’s won back-to-back DP World Tour events at home — and stacked up close calls around the globe. He has an eye-popping collection of close calls at majors (eight top-threes since that 2010 win) and stacked up four top-fives across the globe in 2025.

“At the end of the day, you still need to get the ball in the hole,” he says.

You can watch the entire video on YouTube here or in the embed below.

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The post Joaquin Niemann’s surprising swing story (and 10 other things he taught me) appeared first on Golf.

The post Joaquin Niemann’s surprising swing story (and 10 other things he taught me) appeared first on Golf.

These days, the conversation around Joaquin Niemann can obscure the man himself.

Let’s get more specific: It’s pretty clear to anybody who watches much professional golf that Niemann is one of the more talented players in the world. But exactly how high he belongs on that list is where the debate begins. Phil Mickelson poured on some kerosene on the fire when he added “Top 5? Try #1” to the discourse earlier this year. Niemann won five times on LIV this season, which is certainly evidence of his ability. But he also finished T29-T8-MC-MC in the majors, another disappointing campaign for a player who knows that’s where much of his career will be defined.

Anyway, that’s the conversation around him. As for Niemann himself? He’s a real and delightful person. He’s on the verge of his 27th birthday. He’s wrapping his eighth year as a pro. He’s intense in tournament play but quick to laugh when he steps away. He still has the boyish energy of the teenage sensation who made it on Tour — but he’s contemplative, too, spending more time journaling. And he wouldn’t be able to change that unique swing — the weed-chopping, stone-skipping, hip-whirling swing — even if he wanted to. (He doesn’t.) And you can ask him anything except his favorite golf club. They’re listening, after all…

Here’s what I learned from Niemann in a half-hour on the range.

1. You might not be saying his name quite right.

I bet you’ve got the full thing down. But “Joaquin” often gets shortened to “Joaco,” which I tend to say as a very American “Wah-ko” but he enunciates with a slightly subtler “Hwa-go.”

“Americans have a tough accent to say ‘J-O’ together,” he says charitably.

2. He used to have a specific 40-yard swing — but not any more.

Niemann begins his warmup with a 60-degree wedge, as do many of his peers. But I was interested to hear him say that over the years he’s actually gotten less mechanical with his in-between wedge shots. Once he gets to the point in his warmup that he starts thinking about yardages — 60 or 70 yards, say — he uses his head and his eyes.

“I feel like I’m better at hitting the number when I see something,” he says. “Let’s say I want to land it just on the green. I feel I’ll have a better knowledge of where to land that than just a number, so I go with my feeling.”

That’s a slight change from his younger self, Niemann says.

“I used to be more — I’ve got a 40-yard swing, I’ve got a 50-yard swing, I’ve got a 60-yard swing. But now it’s more free and I play with my vision.”

3. He thinks about throwing the ball to his target.

This is related to No. 2, but it’s interesting enough to separate out.

“For me if it’s like, ‘hey Joaco, throw a ball to the 50-yard [target], it’s not like I’m going to calculate how far I’m going to throw it. I’m just going to go.”

[Throws ball pin-high.]

4. He gets stuck on the 8-iron.

Niemann says he typically runs through all his wedges — 60, 56, 52, then pitching wedge — and then alternates on his way down through his irons (sometimes 9, 7, 5 but usually 8, 6, 4) doing what he can to “make sure they’re not getting neglected.” But then he gets stuck.

“I mean, growing up I used to hit a lot of 8-irons. Like, all day. And my 8-iron was destroyed,” he says.

This resonated with me because I, too, used to get stuck hitting millions of 8-irons during a through-the-bag range session. There’s something appealing about the first club that’s not a wedge.

5. As a kid, he used his clubs as weed-whackers.

Niemann’s father — a college basketball player in Chile and a 20-handicap — introduced him to golf. But it was his mother whose backyard bribery may have taken him next level.

“I used to live in a house where we had a big yard, like, outside the city. And my brother was probably playing video games or playing football or whatever, and I was working with a club.”

Niemann would pitch balls around his yard for hours at a time and then pitch in on some work in the garden, too.

“I remember my mom used to pay me, I dunno, five bucks to break [weeds],” Niemann says. “Sometimes I think that’s why I dig so much into the ground, and I’m like, ‘f—.'”

6. He’s a big thinker.

Niemann plays some video games, he says, after his practice-physical therapy-cold plunge-sauna routine. But he spends more time than you’d think on more intellectual pursuits, too.

“A little bit of reading, all that kind of stuff to kind of help me develop myself better; I feel like I’m getting to know myself better and I need to progress on reading, you know, journaling, all that kind of stuff. I can evaluate myself, how I’m doing in my life, in golf, my relationships, all of that,” Niemann says. “I feel like I’m a big thinker, I like to be quiet, you know, and just think about what’s going on outside.”

7. Trajectory, he says, is everything.

“I feel like more than having a number, I lean more on the trajectory,” Niemann says, showing off his creativity in the way he thinks through shots. “If the green is going to release, I can land it 10 short, hit something low, it’ll skip and spin. Or if the pin is on the front, you’ve got to hit something really high. I go more with windows than actual numbers, y’know?”

8. He favors a little cut.

Niemann likes to hit his irons pretty straight — but if the ball is going to move he wants it falling slightly left to right.

“Every time I ‘miss’ a shot I want it starting left but cutting,” he says. “That’s my feel. If I hit it right then cutting is no good. If I hit it left and it’s drawing, terrible. So I know when the ball starts a little left and it’s cutting that everything is going to be okay.”

To hit the cut, Niemann aligns himself a few yards left of the target and then, as he says, “rotate as hard as I can.” It works pretty well for him.

9. He says his golf clubs are listening.

I ask Niemann if he has a favorite club. He answers seriously.

I can’t tell you. They’re here and they listen,” he says. “They get jealous. They’re all in the bag because I like them all.”

10. He carries a 5 hybrid.

It says “5” on it, after all. But Niemann insists it’s a “4” or at least that it flies “4 distance.”

When you were a kid you were thinking about having a 2-iron,” he says. “I had to give away my childhood dream. I only [go through] 5-iron now.”

In fairness to Niemann, he does have a 3-iron he uses sometimes. But if you needed any further permission to grab a lofted metal, just know he has a 7-wood in his arsenal. He has a 4-slash-5 hybrid.

And they’re listening.

You can watch the whole thing below or here.

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The post Dustin Johnson improved his wedge play with this genius tactic appeared first on Golf.

The post Dustin Johnson improved his wedge play with this genius tactic appeared first on Golf.

Known for his bomb-and-gouge style, Dustin Johnson doesn’t just hit drives — he pulverizes them. Fans always ask how he generates so much speed and distance off the tee, but that’s only half the equation. What most amateurs overlook is what comes next: the precision of his wedge shots. 

Sure, bombing it is fun — but if you want to score, you’ve got to be able to answer with your wedges.

In a recent episode of Warming Up with GOLF’s Dylan Dethier, Johnson revealed the tool that helped him dial in his wedges, and the three-shot method that increased his distance control and confidence on these key scoring shots.

Johnson begins the video by giving us a peek into his pre-round routine: first an off-site workout, then a dynamic warm-up at the course to activate the body, followed by a few technical putting drills.

Only then does Johnson head over to the range. Starting, as most pros do, with wedges — and always with a key practice tool in tow: his Full Swing launch monitor.

How a launch monitor transformed DJ’s wedge game

While it’s standard to see launch monitors lining the range at today’s tour events, Johnson says there was a time when he didn’t depend on these data-driven machines. Relying mostly on feel, Johnson didn’t use a launch monitor extensively in his practice until around 2016 — the year he won the U.S. Open — and the change quickly proved to be worthwhile.

After making the change, Johnson’s wedge game improved immensely. In just one year, he climbed from just inside the top 40 in proximity to the hole on approaches inside 100 yards to ranking third best on tour. A breakthrough Johnson credits to the addition of his launch monitor. 

“I really wanted to start dialing in my wedges,” he said, “For me, that [incorporating a launch monitor] was probably the biggest difference. Just getting instant feedback.”

As Johnson fine-tuned his distances and accuracy, he realized that the launch monitor was also boosting his on-course strategy.

“It helped a lot on say a par-5 that I maybe couldn’t reach, or maybe I hit it in the rough,” he says, “Instead of just blasting it down as close to the green as possible, I would lay it up to 85, 95 or 105.” 

Leaving it to one of his preferred yardages gave Johnson the confidence to attack pins with this three-shot approach. 

DJ’s 3-shot approach

One of Johnson’s biggest keys for better wedge play is consistency. Starting every range session with the same simple, but effective wedge routine.

“I kind of have three shots with each wedge,” Johnson says, “A half, a three-quarter and a stock. And so I’ll kind of work through those with all three of my wedges.”

Take for example, Johnson’s 60-degree. On his half swing, the ball should carry 85-yards. On his three-quarter swing, 95-yards. And his stock swing should result in a 105-yard shot. This is where the fast, accurate feedback of the launch monitor is key. After every shot, Johnson is able to confirm if the ball traveled the right distance.

“I’ll hit a few shots at each distance,” he says, “And then if I’m struggling, I’ll keep hitting until I feel comfortable.”

It may be a simple approach, but sometimes that’s exactly what works — after all, it helped him win two majors.

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The post How full-sending shots on the range can help you on the course appeared first on Golf.

The post How full-sending shots on the range can help you on the course appeared first on Golf.

Using your range time to slow things down and focus on fundamentals is great, especially when you’re trying to make a swing change. If you can’t do something slowly, there’s no way you’ll be able to do it at full speed, so don’t be shy about taking things slow when you’re practicing.

However, that doesn’t mean there isn’t some benefit from ramping things up. When you’re out on the course, sometimes you’re going to need to really go after one, so having that swing in your arsenal is crucial.

Consider Dustin Johnson among the camp that subscribes to that theory. In a recent episode of Warming Up with GOLF’s Dylan Dethier, DJ explained why he likes to carve out some time when he practices to go all out with each of his clubs. Check out the video below, or read on for more.

Why you should full-send shots on the range

If you want to maximize your abilities on the course, you’ve got to know your numbers with every club in the bag. It’s good to know your stock shot, your knockdown and then, crucially, your max yardage.

Why is the max number so important? Well, when your adrenaline is pumping and you’re under the gun, you tend to hit the ball further. And when you’re in that situation, you need to know how far the ball is going to fly.

That’s why it’s essential that you figure out your max number with every club in the bag. That way, when you’re under the gun, you’re not caught wondering if you’ve got too much club in your hand.

“I think that goes back to knowing what your max distance is, because if you know your max distance, you can’t hit it any further than that,” Johnson said. “You’re not hitting it any further; there’s only so far you can hit it.”

So, next time you’re on the range, take some time to really go after it for a few swings with each club. This will help you learn your max carry numbers and make you better prepared next time the pressure is on.

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The post 5 lessons Dustin Johnson taught me in 37 minutes on the driving range appeared first on Golf.

The post 5 lessons Dustin Johnson taught me in 37 minutes on the driving range appeared first on Golf.

What was it like to have Dustin Johnson on the latest episode of “Warming Up“? It was cool to hear directly about the process behind one of the greatest players of his generation. It was also a real golf thrill to watch one of the greatest drivers of the modern era tee a few high and let ’em fly. But mostly what’s impressive about Dustin Johnson in person is just how comfortable he seems being…Dustin Johnson. That meant he answered every question earnestly and thoughtfully but also without any pretense or performance. Johnson doesn’t care what you think about him, and he definitely doesn’t care what I think about him, and there’s something admirable in that.

For our purposes, it also means you can learn a thing or two. Here are five pieces of wisdom from a half-hour session with the former World No. 1:

1. He’s not afraid of a pre-round workout.

It’s no surprise to hear Johnson gets a proper warmup in the gym pre-round. But I was intrigued by his admission that he’ll put in two-a-days for a later afternoon tee time.

“Obviously if it’s Sunday and I’m in one of the later groups, we’re going off pretty late,” he said. “So yeah, I’ll probably have already done a workout and then I’ll get to the course and I’ll do like a warmup again, back in the gym for, like, 20 minutes, just get the body moving and firing.”

Again, this isn’t shocking to hear from one of the world’s most famously athletic golfers. But in the context of golf history — and the relatively short timeframe golfers have actually acted like athletes — it’s a reminder of just how far pros have come.

2. He leans on a simple wedge drill.

First of all, I like Johnson’s old-school wedge gapping: 60-degree, 54-degree, 48-degree. No need for a gap wedge if you don’t have a gap!

“For a little while, I switched and went 46, 50, 54, [60],” Johnson said. “But I’ve been playing like this since I was a kid, I think. … And I just switched back a month or two ago. So I tried it for like a year. It didn’t work.”

What has worked, though, is dialing in the details. That means hitting three different wedge shots with each club.

“I kind of have three shots with each wedge, like a half, a three-quarter and a stock,” Johnson said. “I’ll work through those with all three of my wedges.” On this day at LIV Golf’s Dallas stop, his half-60 went 85 yards, his three-quarters-60 went 95 and his stock 60 went 105.

Johnson didn’t use a launch monitor growing up (nobody did at the time), but as he’s gotten more into the data he’s focused particularly closely on calibrating these wedge shots.

“For me, that was probably the biggest difference was just getting instant feedback,” Johnson said. That freed him up to lay back on certain holes; he cited a different strategy for a second shot on a par-5.

“Instead of just blasting it down as close to the green as possible, I would lay it up to like 85, 95 or 105, depending on the flag. Suddenly, you know that there’s something there, instead of like a 40- or 50-yard shots from pushing up and then a lot of times you get stuck to flags where you got to hit a perfect golf shot to get it close. Yeah. So it made things a lot easier.”

3. He thinks studying video has its limits.

I asked Johnson whether he feels like his swing has changed much over the years.

“No, I mean, it hasn’t,” he said, after a pause. “I look at old videos and videos now and they all look [the same]. Obviously videos from when I’m swinging really well and playing really well to when I’m struggling, and I compare them and they don’t really look any different.”

This checks out; in general when I watch my own swing on video I can only really separate the best shots from the worst if I can see where the ball goes (or watch disappointment and frustration wash over my face). So what to do about it?

“That’s the thing, y’know, there’s such little small differences that make huge impacts on what you’re doing. So that’s why repetition and always trying to hit numbers and things is generally what helps me the most.”

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4. He’s hunting max distance on the range — for a good reason.

Just before this session with Johnson, I’d had a conversation with Louis Oosthuizen, who told me he hits it much further on the course than he does on the range. Johnson agreed — sort of. He doesn’t believe in the magic of the golf course allowing you to suddenly smash your personal ball speed record, but he does believe in preparation.

“I always try to hit some, like, try to smash it. Just hit as far as I can with each club just to know what my max numbers are.”

I pushed back wondering if it’s possible to elevate from that max during tournament play just because you’re charged up. DJ wasn’t buying it.

“I think that goes back to knowing what your max distance is, because if you know your max distance, you can’t hit it any further than that,” he said, then added this gem: “You’re not hitting it any further; there’s only so far you can hit it.”

Okay, what about down the stretch in the situation he described, in contention the last couple holes, adrenaline pumping, feeling good, confidence high — surely there’s another level you can access?

“Well, there is, but that’s why you try to access that on the range,” he said.

Case closed.

5. He’ll tell you how to hit the fade. (He’s just better at it than you are.)

There’s an old viral clip of Johnson talking about hitting a fade in which he says essentially that when you’re trying to hit a fade, the most important thing to do is fade it. I think there’s some actual insight there — if you’re hitting the fade, hit the fade! that’s what matters — but mostly it’s a funny clip that Johnson admits he still hears about all the time. So how does he hit a fade?

“My first eight years on Tour I played a draw,” Johnson says. “I used to draw everything, I wouldn’t hit a fade unless I had to like, go around the tree or something. And working with Butch [Harmon], the first four years together we worked on hitting fades we worked on hitting fades but still would never hit one [on the course].”

Johnson remembers one BMW Championship where he debuted the secret-weapon fade in a big moment down the stretch. So how does he do it? No surprise here but Johnson makes it sound pretty simple.

“I set up feet a little bit open. Club at the target. I’ll take it back on my feet line. And then release it to the target.”

I asked for some clarification on what “release it to the target” actually means, to which Johnson essentially shrugged. “I’ll take it a hair outside and then I’ll just release it to the target.”

Fair enough.

You can watch the interview in its entirety here or below.

The post 5 lessons Dustin Johnson taught me in 37 minutes on the driving range appeared first on Golf.